The art of living with others requires a tricky balance of honesty and kindness. Living situations might result in friendship or strife, but they always produce great stories.
The Bad
“I had a roommate last year who came from a very rich, rich family,” software engineering junior Paul Armer said. “So she didn’t understand the concept of cleaning because she actually had a maid back home.”
Armer said it was especially frustrating when she left full meals sitting on the stove.
“It was horrendous because at one point I needed a pot to make pasta and I looked in it, and there was pasta and sauce and mold in there,” Armer said. “That wasn’t a one-time event. It was just gross.”
Communication studies freshman Ben King lived in an overflow room in Yosemite Hall during fall quarter.
“One of my roommates was really, really into video games,” King said. “He would get really upset when he’d lose. I’d just be sitting there, and all of a sudden, he’d scream some obscenity out of nowhere. Even through headphones I could hear him, and I’d think someone was dying or something.”
However, King said his living situation did not completely affect his opinion of his roommates.
“He was a really sweet guy, so you’d never expect that he’d have these intense tantrums out of nowhere,” he said. “I really liked all my roommates.”
King said the only way to confront roommates about issues is to be very forward.
This quarter, King was able to move out of the overflow room and into a triple in Sierra Madre.
“For Fall 2011, we had 76 students living in these temporary overflow areas,” director of residential life and education Carole Schaffer said in an email. “It is our hope that the remaining 25 currently in overflow will have the option to move to traditional rooms for spring quarter.”
Schaffer said the large size of this year’s freshman class made it necessary to turn the first floor study lounges of the freshman dorms into temporary rooms.
The Good
“We’re pretty honest about our roommate pet peeves,” history sophomore Katherine Sanine said of her relationship with her roommates.
Sanine lived with political science sophomore Erin Canino their freshman year.
“We were randomly paired in the dorms,” Canino said. “We ended up really hitting it off, and we live together this year.”
They live in Poly Canyon Village (PCV) with one of the girls they lived with during their freshman year.
“I’ve gone to bed early the last few nights, so my roommate went out in the hall to blend her smoothie after I went to sleep,” Canino said. “Being quiet at night is really considerate.”
Being quiet is only one polite thing to do.
“Keeping your mess in your own room instead of the common room is really nice (too),” Sanine said.
Liberal studies sophomore Kaitlyn Harris Leach also lives in PCV.
“I don’t really have any pet peeves with my actual roommates,” Harris Leach said. “It’s more with the girl above me. In PCV the floors are so thin. I thought in the beginning of the year that she was stomping around all the time, but it turned out she was on crutches so she literally was hobbling all over.”
Harris Leach, who lived in Cerro Vista Apartments her freshman year, said she hasn’t had any horrible roommate experiences.
“But I’ve heard about a lot, especially in the triples in the dorms,” she said.
This year, Harris Leach was randomly assigned roommates.
“Last year, I was friends with all my roommates, and that was really nice because I was new and a freshman,” she said. “But this year it’s kind of nice not to be friends with them because I have a lot more going on and I can come and go when I want to.”
A Little Advice
Schaffer emphasized the importance of using a roommate agreement.
“The roommate agreement is a tool we encourage students to fill out and then discuss with their roommates,” she wrote in an email. “Doing this right at the start of the year is best, so that all the roommates have an understanding of each other’s expectations.”
Armer said talking about problems with roommates relieves tension and opens the door for a possible friendship.
“I hate when people write notes to each other, kind of passive aggressively. Instead of just going up to your roommate and saying, ‘Hey, can you clean the dishes, they’ve been around for a while,'” he said.