University Housing Woes

[ScipioAsina]

Hello all! This is my first post here and also the first time I've had to "vent" in years, as I'm typically a very patient guy. I posted the following on another forum recently but didn't receive much of a response. As a note, all the names are fictional. So here goes:

My last school year was rather unpleasant owing to roommate troubles; the housing system at my university automatically assigned me to someone with whom I had nothing in common with. I made it a point to not let that happen this coming school year. I talked it over with a good friend of mine, 'Metz,' (his username) and we decided that we should room together the next year. On the very first day we were allowed to pick our roommates, I received a message telling me that 'Metz' requested me as a roommate. I "confirmed" it.

A month and a half later, Housing sends e-mails to everyone saying everything's ready to go. I login to the Housing website and my roommate's username is... 'Joseph.' Well, that can't be right. 'Metz' has also been assigned to someone else, and this guy is two years older than him. We both send messages to Housing. This is what they tell me:

"Our system shows that you confirmed [Michael Mason] as your roommate."

This can't be right. Michael Mason was my roommate from Fall 2008 to Spring 2009. I keep in touch with Michael and know him well enough to say, judging by the profile I'm reading, that 'Joseph' is not the same person as Michael. Of course, even if they were one and the same, the only person I ever confirmed as a roommate was my friend 'Metz.' So I politely inform housing that there must be a mistake with their system. "Metz', who is overseas at the moment, also sends several messages.

I receive no response, so the next morning I send out another e-mail. This also goes unanswered, and on the third morning I try sending a message from my Gmail account. I finally receive a response saying the Housing Office never got any of our e-mails. I tell the Housing Office for a third time that I think there is a mistake, and they inform me that my inquiries will be forwarded to Bob, the office manager. I get this from Bob a few hours later (he always refers to himself in the third person):

"Your roommate had selected a room that only had one beds pace available, making it impossible for the system to honor your roommate request. He also had different hall preferences than you. Therefore you were auto assigned by the system when it showed you had not chosen a room, based on your hall preference and questionnaire. There is nothing we can do, to change roommates, at this time. The office manager will keep an eye out of any cancellations that will make it possible to place you two together, but the assignment you both have received will stand."

'Metz' picked the same room that he had last year, during which he had a roommate, and he was also assigned a roommate for this coming year. Unless someone's sleeping on the floor, this room couldn't possibly have only "one beds pace." And if the system automatically moved him out of that room for some reason, there is no reason why I should not have been eligible to be his roommate. This whole "one beds pace" thing doesn't make any sense.

Not having the same hall preferences as 'Metz' was probably a mistake on my part; I shouldn't have assumed that one's choice of roommate would receive greater priority from the system than one's hall preference. But if it was indeed impossible for the system to honor my roommate confirmation, why did it allow me to do so in the first place? The system is fully capable of sending out automatic messages, so why couldn't I have been notified of some sort of problem or conflict? I have better things to do than to login to the Housing website each morning to make sure the system is capable of handling minor conflicts. In addition, nowhere on the application is it mentioned that one's choice of roommate is based entirely on one's hall preference (and hall preference isn't even guaranteed).

If I understand correctly: Person A wants to room with Person B. Person B confirms. Person A picks a room, and Person B puts no preference. Person A's hall preference is 2, 1, 3, 4, in that order, and Person B's is 1, 2, 3, 4. Person A cannot room with Person B. Maybe I'm being a little unreasonable, but this system seems rather broken (as a note, halls '1' and '2' are less than a minute away from each other, and the differences between rooms are negligible). But if I'm to believe what Bob told me, the reason why 'Metz' and I weren't put together was because 'Metz' picked a room with only one bed, making all of this irrelevant. Or is that even if 'Metz' had picked a different room, I would not have been assigned to him because our hall and room preferences weren't perfectly synchronized? Then this goes back to the question of why I was never told that rooming with a person of your choice requires that you pick the same exact room and hall as they pick. If that's the case, why bother pick a roommate? Finally, this doesn't address why the system insists I confirmed Michael Mason as my roommate.

I understand it is difficult to make last-minute changes to housing accommodations. However, Bob's response was hardly satisfying. I was asked to talk with him on the phone, but I explained that my phone wasn't working. I sent another message inquiring about these inconsistencies and received a response from Bob late in the afternoon:

"When [Metz] selected his roommate he went into a room that had only one bed space. This over rode his roommate request for the system could not place [Provost] into an occupied space. The system tries based on what is given by the student and who remains left form picking a room to match students.

As for him seeing [Michael Mason] as his roommate he must of done something wrong because he isn’t placed with [Michael]. Furthermore [Michael] didn’t even apply. The only thought of why this happen is that he is using his history in browser and pull old information. He should try clearing his browser history and check his status again. Also students aren’t given full names of students. It gives screen names. There is no issues with the system. It goes based on what information it is given.

Any other questions will have to be dealt by phone with [Bob]."

This made blood shoot out of my eyes. It was the HOUSING OFFICE that told me:

"Our system shows that you confirmed [Michael Mason] as your roommate."

If I'm to believe everything Housing has told me up to this point, the system says I confirmed Michael Mason as my roommate, except Michael didn't apply, and there is nothing wrong with the system; and 'Metz' and I were assigned different roommates because he picked a room with only one bed. This doesn't make any sense at all!

I really would like to give the Housing Office a call, except I already explained to them that my phone isn't working. How kind of Bob to take that into consideration. Now I'm trying to find someone higher-up on the ladder to talk to. Would anyone care to explain all this to me? My friends and family believe the Housing Office is "made of fail." 'Metz' thinks they're full of BS, though I feel like I must be missing something.

[Raze]

For God´s sake why not post a little and then more as people make replies to this thread! Honestly, some people´s first posts are way too fucking long.