Taking a break between classes, Catherine Cunningham, senior sociology and art history major, writes in her journal while listening to her iPod in Risman Plaza. Cunningham hasn’t used her iPod for academic reasons, but she has saved papers to its hard d

Credit: Ben Breier

“Home sweet home” isn’t always the case for Kent State students living on campus.

“After the first week, I went home and told my mom I didn’t want to live here,” Prentice Hall resident Abbigail Resanovich said.

Resanovich, freshman criminal justice major, said she purposely chose to live with someone new because it’s “part of the experience of going to college.”

Soon after moving in, Resanovich said she doubted her decision and wanted to change rooms.

She is not alone.

T.J. Logan, assistant director of residence services, said about 500 students change their room assignments throughout the school year.

This year, however, residents unhappy with their room assignments must wait until Oct. 12 to switch rooms, due to the fire in Allyn Hall on Sept. 5.

“The room freeze was extended to afford the students displaced from Allyn Hall the opportunity to move into permanent housing,” Logan said.

“This decision was made by the department in an effort to work with those students who had their residential community disrupted,” Logan said.

For residents like Resanovich, the wait was too long.

Resanovich said she was excited her roommate was a foreign exchange student because she wanted to learn more about different cultures. But differences in their lifestyles made it difficult to get along, she said.

“My roommate didn’t allow me to have my boyfriend in the room,’ she said.

Resanovich said she talked with her residence hall director about moving into a different room, despite the room freeze. She said she would have rather commuted from her home in Canton South than continue with her current living situation.

Not all residents who are unhappy with their current situations want a new roommate. Terrace Hall resident Joanna Davis said she just wants a new room.

Davis, a sophomore exploratory major, said she and her roommate were told Terrace Hall had mostly open housing when they received their assignment letters during summer.

She no longer wants to live in Terrace Hall because of the large number of new residents who have moved in due to displacement from the fire.

With all the new residents from Allyn Hall, Davis said it’s a lot louder and there are more freshman residents. She said she would like to move to the Eastway Complex or Tri-Towers to be around more upperclassmen but said she doesn’t think she will be able to.

“Because of the fire, we don’t really have a choice anymore,” she said. “We (Terrace Hall residents) were the people who had first choice for rooms next semester. Because of the Allyn fire, we don’t anymore.”

Logan said the spaces available on campus are limited and wide-spread throughout campus. He added that residents who are unhappy with their current room assignments should talk to their hall director.

“We have a full-time staff in every building for that reason – to help students,” Logan said. “We very much appreciate everyone’s patience, compassion and understanding as we delay the room change period to accommodate those affected by the fire in Allyn Hall.”

In order to avoid commuting, Resanovich moved into her new room in Prentice Hall last weekend.

“I didn’t want to leave Prentice,” she said. “So they (the residence hall staff) told me to find a room that wanted to swap.”

Resanovich said she is glad she talked to her hall director and switched rooms.

“We tried to work it out, and it didn’t,” she said. “It’s a lot of trouble to go through, but if it’s a change you need to make then it’s worth it.”

Contact room and board reporter Stephanie Park at [email protected].