Having now worked for Residence Life for nine semesters, I have never seen as much dissatisfaction expressed with housing at Oberlin as this year. It started off with the opening of the then-not-yet-finished Woodland Hall, allowing the College to deny many third- and fourth- year students the true independence that living off-campus fosters. The building is seemingly designed to house as many students as possible, at the lowest cost possible, with the lowest standards for a new residence hall acceptable. Why have your own kitchen when you can share one with roughly 400 people? Why risk leaving the window open when you can have it permanently closed? One of the four goals of Oberlin’s “Residential Curriculum Model” — you’re forgiven if you have never heard of it — is for students to “develop practical competence.” How are students expected to do this when we are forced to obtain housing through the school for four years (an almost absurd concept when given deeper thought), and when the reality is that many students in College housing don’t even have to learn to clean their own bathroom, let alone cook for themselves?
These are only some of the problems that can and have been discussed at great length in The Oberlin Review this year. One aspect of ResLife that students might not be as familiar with, but which is frustratingly obvious to me as a Village Assistant having to work six hours each week in the physical ResLife office, is simply how the resource allocation seems to be wholly misguided. Even after working for an entire academic year in the office, on top of three and a half years as a Resident Assistant, I can confidently say that I do not know what most ResLife staff members do on a day-to-day basis. When working the front desk, the only person I essentially ever refer people to is Dakota Stephens, who is currently the sole person responsible for what is arguably the core of ResLife’s operations: managing housing assignments. If matters are particularly serious, a student and/or parent might get a meeting with Mark Zeno.
From my understanding, most of what other staff members do is supervise RAs. And yet, we are all in on the open secret that most RAs do essentially nothing, or just the absolute bare minimum of what they are supposed to do. From my experience, RAs are helpful and important for first-years, but after that, their roles are significantly less important to most students.
The core problem is this: No matter how good your RA and their programming is, it won’t make a difference if you are fundamentally incompatible with your roommate but unable to get a room change for sometimes as long as multiple months. I have seen students utterly miserable, sometimes crying as they walk in, because they have repeatedly tried to get, but not been given, a room change. I understand that allocating housing units equitably and seamlessly across all of campus is an incredibly difficult task, but it is clear where the College’s priorities lie on this issue.
To me, the solution to many of Oberlin’s housing problems seems relatively simple: Firstly, restructure all of ResLife. Staff should primarily be working on what is actually important and essential to students, not a “Residential Curriculum Model” that most students won’t engage with due to underpaid RAs not implementing it in practice. Second, increase the number of off-campus spots to free up housing units, create flexibility, and simplify housing allocation for ResLife staff. Finally, build more apartment-style housing so that upperclassmen can develop the practical life skills they will need when leaving the cushioned environment that is Oberlin.
Throughout my five years, I have heard ResLife explain the problem of Oberlin’s housing shortage, as class sizes have increased and much-needed renovations are continually postponed. With the addition of 402 beds in the form of Woodland Hall, shouldn’t this problem be mitigated? Yes, buildings are being taken offline for renovations, but — as people who have experienced rooms simply “running out” this spring know — clearly, we still have a housing shortage. Instead of keeping a buffer of housing units to make sure everyone can get an assignment properly through the different lotteries, and so that anyone who actually needs a room change can get one without much delay or difficulty (this would likely work wonders for overall student well-being), the College is opting to secure more revenue by limiting as many off-campus spots as possible.
Unfortunately, as with so many of the problems with Oberlin, I find myself wondering: Where do the College’s priorities lie? Is it with their current students, the quality of these students’ experience, and the unique and adorably quirky culture that we share? Or is it with revenue growth and what they think they can sell to prospective students?
