To the Editor:
On Monday, March 12, 2007, Assistant Director of Residence Life Amanda Bingel sent out an e-mail to all residents of the third floor of McGiffert House in Stacwyck. In this e-mail, she stated that we would no longer be able to claim squatters’ rights in our apartments. Instead, if we are to squat, we will be placed in the corresponding room in Wiltsie House. Not only did Residence Life give us a very short time to solve issues (the deadline to claim squatters’ rights is this Friday), but the reason for this move is a blatant violation of independents’ rights.
Currently, Alpha Gamma Delta resides in the first two floors of McGiffert. Alpha Gamma Delta is moving out, and Alpha Phi, occupying Wiltsie House right now, has been invited to move into the building due to these floors being renovated more for sorority living.
While I do not dispute Alpha Phi overtaking the bottom two floors of McGiffert, I take great offense to the sorority claiming rights to the top floor, occupied by people who are not in any way affiliated with Alpha Gamma Delta. These rooms Residence Life wants Alpha Phi to lay claim to have had no such renovation; they are occupied by students who chose these rooms in the lottery, many with intent to squat in the future. In fact, a majority of the rooms affected have squatted in the past. Blatantly disregarding the squatters’ rights of those currently living on this floor—which say that “If you are a current resident assigned with an upper-class Residence Agreement, you have the opportunity to stay in the same room for next year at Residence Life ...” (emphasis added)—is a horrible insult to all independent students. Giving preferential treatment to greeks cannot be tolerated.
I chose to live in McGiffert for a reason. This building is the first building of the row of buildings, and as such, provides a nice view all the way down to the Houston Field House. We can see the shuttles heading up the hill directly from the window in our living room, which is a direct benefit for the colder months. Due to our location, it is also easy to give people that are not familiar with our campus directions, and to see if they are on the right street without leaving the apartment. If I had wanted to live in Wiltsie, I would have chosen to; one such apartment was open during the lottery two years ago. I chose McGiffert. I have lived in this room for the past two years, and I fully intended to live here my senior year. This is my home. As such, I have taken great care going so far as to fix things on my own, rather than go through FIXX (a sometimes time-consuming process), and also taking better care of appliances and furniture, and having the perfect arrangement of everything.
A related issue occurred back in 1989, during which the Independent, Interfraternity, and Panhellenic Council presidents, the chairman of the Senate Physical Facilities Committee, and the Grand Marshal took action. Stacwyck had the possibility of being renovated for allowing sororities and fraternities to move in. The IC laid out a policy to be adopted in order to avoid potential problems in the future. In this policy, all potentially affected residents would be given a one year notice about the loss of squatters’ rights—not four days! This would effectively allow residents to squat one final year, and then be denied their proper squatters’ rights to provide for renovation. Four days is not sufficient time to search for an off-campus apartment.
Trampling over the rights of independents for the sake of greeks cannot be tolerated.
Ryan Hawthorne
ELEC/CSYS ’08
