Students frustrated by lack of housing

 Some Florida A&M University students seeking campus housing will be left to find their own.

On August 21, four days before classes started, the Office of Housing and Residence Life sent an e-mail notifying students, faculty and staff that there are no more rooms available for the fall 2008 term.

In response to student concerns about the e-mail, Roland Gaines, vice president of Student Affairs, admitted he had no immediate solution to the problem.

“There is no remedy for that,” said Gaines, when asked about the situation during the FAMU Senate meeting Monday evening.

Part of the problem was that the university accepted housing applications months past the deadline.

“The deadline for housing was June 1 (and) we accepted housing up (until) August,” Gaines said.

Now that the university has left some students scrambling, officials are not about to recommend any alternative housing. He said FAMU could be held legally or financially responsible if something were to happen to a student who they gave suggestions to.

“There is nothing else we can do,” Gaines said. “There is a liability involved with suggesting housing.”

Sampson and Young dormitories have been closed for years, despite previous announcements about their renovation..

Gallop Franklin, FAMU Student Government Association Senior Class Senator, said it’s going take a while to find a solution.

“This is going to be a problem for the next couple of years because our enrollment is increasing and we don’t have space until Polkinghorne (villages) are replaced and Sampson and Young are renovated,” Franklin said.

Renovations have already been scheduled and three firms have been approved to do the work. Gaines said.

“We will be tearing down Polkinghorne and putting 800 beds there,” he said.

According to Gaines, these renovations, along with those done at Sampson and Young Halls, are currently scheduled for 2010.