This article is Part One in a two part series about housing on campus.
Dozens of “direct swap” cards hang on the bulletin boards of Boston University residence halls, some waiting for days or weeks until students respond to them. Some who try to direct swap are never contacted.
To avoid this, some freshmen have said they decided to take matters into their own hands, turning to online networks such as Facebook to complete the direct swaps.
College of Arts and Sciences freshman Zach Estep filled out the “direct swap” card and had it posted on the bulletin board of various dorms, in hopes of switching out of the Myles Annex, he said. So far, he has received no response and no further help from the Office of Residence Life.
“ResLife was very helpful in assisting me with getting the direct swap cards filled out and where to place them,” Estep said, “but other than that they really left the process hanging up in the air.”
Nishmin Kashyap, the director of the Office of Housing, said direct swapping is the easiest way for students to change their rooms.
“The direct swap process is the most successful process as it is transparent and completely student driven,” Kashyap said. “This is the most successful option that students have.”
BU has no online database for the direct swap process. The process relies on the chance that someone also looking for a room will stumble upon a particular card, Estep said. It’s a chance many students said they have avoided altogether.
“I don’t think [my roommate] bothered with ResLife at all,” said Ella Clausen, a College of Communication freshman, whose roommate is trying to switch out of West Campus. Her roommate has yet to find an alternate living arrangement.
CAS freshman Rachel Saad said she recently finalized her direct swap out of a triple in 575 Commonwealth Ave., commonly known as HoJo, through Facebook rather than working directly with BU’s ResLife office.
“ResLife doesn’t start organizing room swap stuff until school starts, and I wanted to figure out my living arrangements as soon as possible,” Saad said. “Who knows how long it would have taken [without Facebook].”
CAS freshman Matthew Miller said he considered switching from a brownstone over the summer but ultimately decided to stay. At the time, the social networking site seemed like the only viable option, he said.
“I didn’t go to ResLife because I didn’t know it existed, nor did I know that was what students were supposed to do,” Miller said.
“ResLife could improve the overall process of switching rooms by changing it from a physical process to a completely online database,” Estep said. “It would be similar to a Craigslist posting, but for room swapping, and would streamline the entire process.”
The creation of such a database, Estep said, would certainly centralize the BU housing system, saving much stress and disappointment among students seeking new accommodations.
Kashyap said there is no plan to start an official online housing database at BU.
“No official roommate finder exists, but students use Facebook and other social networking sites extensively,” Kashyap said.
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