Usually, I don’t like to use public forums to air my personal grievances but in this case, I am making an exception because I think I am voicing the feelings of some of my fellow students. Something is seriously wrong with Vanderbilt’s housing.

Before I delve into what I think are perfectly legitimate complaints, let me give a brief history of my housing experience here at Vandy. For my freshman year, I lived in a study room in Towers that had been converted into a cramped double. In retrospect, living in Towers wasn’t so bad, but I did miss out on the whole freshmen bonding experience. Thanks to my extra housing point, I managed to score a double in Stapleton this year. It’s not the ideal place to live, but when compared to Kissam, anything starts to look good. Fast-forward to this year’s housing process: I’ve gone through three housing ballots with no success and will probably be stuck in Branscomb for the second year in a row.

If I was the only person facing this situation, I would attribute it to bad luck. However, from talking with other members of the Class of 2011, it seems like a substantial number — I would even venture to say a majority — of my classmates have gotten the short end of the stick this year.

It is somewhat understandable that this year’s sophomores lived in traditional freshman housing. Obviously, the addition of The Commons necessitated housing changes so though people may have been unhappy, it was something people could deal with. But having to live in the same dorms three years in a row? I’m upset our school seems to have no qualms with sentencing a substantial number of juniors to this fate.

I’m also surprised by the pure lack of planning on Vanderbilt’s part. Did they consider what would happen if they built new, pristine dorms for the incoming class of students, while making only minor improvements to upperclassman housing? I don’t see how they can justify such a large investment for one class while ignoring the needs of the other classes.
Anyway, I’m going to complement these reasonable complaints with a couple of solutions to improve the housing selection process in the future. First of all, Vanderbilt needs to remove the stringent restrictions on living off campus. Yes, forcing all students to live on campus may foster “community feelings,” but there is simply not enough decent housing on this campus. Allowing more upperclassmen to live off campus will alleviate the pressure that has been caused by the recent practice of admitting more students per class than were admitted in the past.

If students will be required to live on campus, the housing options need to be improved, no question. I understand we have no money. I understand there were plans to knock down Kissam but these plans are being postponed until the economy improves. Still, we pay a lot to attend this school, and our dorms are significantly worse than those at Tennessee state universities. Though our money is going to acquiring a superior education, some of our parents’ money is going to unnecessary programs instead of to improving housing conditions. On a related note, Vanderbilt could start pricing housing based on quality instead of providing it at a flat rate, though having different housing tiers would probably result in another set of problems.

At any rate, something needs to be done. Housing doesn’t make or break the general college experience, but it can make a huge difference in a student’s quality of life.

—Aimee Sobhani is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Science. She can be reached at aimee.f.sobhani@vanderbilt.edu.