After sending four of her children to college, Elizabeth Bogdanowicz assumed she’d have the process figured out by now — until her son chose to go to IU.
Elizabeth lives four hours away in Elmherst, Illinois. She has two weeks left to prepare her incoming freshman, Michael, for his first Welcome Week at IU, but the Bogdanowiczs are still not sure what exactly they are preparing for.
Michael found out July 25 he will be sharing a lounge with three or four other freshman in Spruce Hall, a residence hall he didn’t even have as his second or third choice when he submitted his housing requests. Michael made the northwest neighborhood his first preference and central neighborhood his second because he’s hoping study finance with the Kelley School of Business.
“Thank you, Indiana, for the unnecessary stress,” Elizabeth said. “They should have this figured this out already.”
Spruce Hall, originally Rose Avenue Residence Hall, is located at Rose Avenue and Jones Drive. Its construction was completed in time for Welcome Week 2013.
By housing 440 residents, Spruce eliminated the need for overflow housing for the first time in nine years when the residence hall opened, Sara Ivey Lucas, current assistant dean of students for parents and off campus student affairs, said in a previous article by the Indiana Daily Student.
In 2013, the number of students in overflow housing had decreased from 94 in 2012 and 272 in 2009. This year, the usual amount of overflow housing is once again pushing the limits of the University’s resources.
Elizabeth has experienced housing procedures through Miami of Ohio, Augustana College and University of Illinois with her four older children but explained she never had this much difficultly with other schools.
“I mean, we’re really unhappy,” Elizabeth said. “It’s our first time at Indiana University. This is my fifth, and never in all the years of sending my freshmen off to school have we ever had an experience like this, so it’s been very disheartening coming in.”
Elizabeth is aware the people she speaks to over the phone with IU housing assignments are merely employees. She said they have always been more than pleasant with her and always pick up the phone, but their answers were never good enough.
“The phone calls from these parents should have been going to administration,” Elizabeth said. “The pressure should not have been put on those young workers in housing.”
The Bogdanowicz family attended New Student Orientation near the end of June. They noticed many students already knew their housing assignments and who their roommates would be.
“They didn’t even set you up for it, they didn’t even give you options,” Elizabeth said.
When Elizabeth and Michael tried asking admission representatives during orientation, Michael said the workers said they were working on more batches.
Michael completed his housing assignment before the given deadline of May 1 after deciding to attend IU, but his efforts to find out his housing have been put on hold because he was apparently in ‘the last batch,’ administration told him over the phone.
Although he applied for housing prior to the deadline, Michael’s only knowledge of why he is so far away from his preferences is because he signed up late.
Out of the five or six times the Bogdanowicz family reached out to IU, it seems they’ve always told them to wait another week, Michael said.
“Everything’s coming out and everyone’s running to go check if they found their dorm, and then I hear nothing,” Michael said. “You check and check and check, but then you’re the last few ... it’s kind of upsetting. I pretty much lost all the excitement.”
When Michael and his mom called the admissions office July 28, they were told the office was pretty sure Michael would be living in Spruce, but his housing assignment would depend on Spruce Hall’s fire code and outlet situation first.
Michael and Elizabeth are still awaiting documented confirmation on Michael’s living arrangement.
While Elizabeth knows everything is going to be fine, she still feels her son has missed an important college experience, getting to know roommates first and planning living arrangements.
“Whether it’s your first child or your last child, you know you love each child the same and you want them to have, you know, how they talk about it’s all in the transition, coming in the first day, people have met their lifelong friends ... and he’s spent the whole time not knowing,” Elizabeth said. “Gone. It’s Aug. 1 almost, that’s gone. All that experience has been taken away.”
