If you think you were cramped in your dorm freshman year, imagine being placed in a bathroom or closet.
That’s what happened to at least two incoming freshman who applied to live in Neptune, UCF’s newest housing facility.
“I kept seeing everyone posting on the UCF Class of 2018 Facebook page about roommates and assignments, and I had my community with room number and building, but no roommates,” Ashlyn TenBieg, an incoming freshman planning to major in both Business and Event Management, said.
TenBieg decided to call UCF housing on Friday and figure out exactly why she didn’t appear to have any roommates for this fall. She got transferred around until she got a woman who told her some startling news.
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“[She] told me that they mistakenly placed me in a bathroom and that I will get a new assignment,” TenBieg said.
TenBieg said she was glad she called about the problem, and found the whole situation kind of humorous.
“I thought it was kinda funny,” TenBieg said. “I thought the lady was just joking at first when she told me because she said it so casual.”
Another incoming freshman, Brian Schickman, had something very similar happen to him.
Schickman, an industrial engineering major, already knew his desired roommate. The two were talking constantly about their future at UCF when they noticed their rooming assignment changing almost weekly.
Their room had changed floors and buildings twice before their parents got involved.
“Both of us were starting to get a little bit annoyed and confused so his parents called the school and asked why it kept changing,” Schickman said. “They said they accidentally placed us in a closet.”
Both students were able to resolve the problem because they noticed the problem and were proactive to resolve it.
Courtney Gilmartin, UCF spokeswoman, said that housing didn’t know anything about these students getting placed irregularly for the fall term, but said that one unnamed student did have a problem getting placed in the summer term and ended up in a room that didn’t exist.
After an investigation, housing said that a handful of students were incorrectly assigned in Neptune but said that the problem was promptly corrected.
“This was all kind of caused by a programming glitch just by virtue of Neptune being a new community,” Gilmartin said. “A student was placed in a room that didn’t exist and it was brought to housing’s attention and fixed immediately. That student was given another assignment in an actual room.”
Gilmartin said that it isn’t common to hear about errors like this but said there’s always a possibility of small glitches, especially being that Neptune is a new community.
“The incorrect room assignments would have come up as move-in preparation drew closer, so there wouldn’t have been a chance that students would show up on campus and not have a place to live,” Gilmartin said.
If you notice any irregularities in your housing assignment, or if you aren’t assigned roommates yet contact UCF housing at 407-823-4663.
