Students who pull someone into their housing pick time, usually in exchange for money, are violating the University of Connecticut housing contract, associate director of housing services Amy Crim said.
“As indicated in our 2019-2020 Housing Contract, students in the selection process are not permitted to match roommates with fellow students for payment,” Crim said in a statement. “Students typically pay a student with higher earned credits to pull them into a space they would not be eligible to select into otherwise.”
Students who do this are violating section 8.2 of the housing contract.
“Housing selection times are non-transferable. Returning resident students who are eligible to participate in the 2019-2020 Online Housing Selection Process cannot transfer/sell their eligibility to any other student,” the contract said.
This is not fair to other students, which is why the policy is in place, Crim said.
“These have been reported by fellow students,” Crim said. “We aren’t scrolling through different social media outlets looking for this, it’s finding us. Fellow students are finding it and [are] upset.”
This school year alone, Crim said there are about 15 to 20 students who have been found in violation of this portion of the contract.
“We had this happen in recent years and we pulled students in and had meetings,” Crim said. “Most students don’t realize that this has an impact on fellow Huskies…when we meet with them they’re very apologetic, they didn’t think of it like that.”
Students found in violation have varying levels of punishment depending on the severity of the situation, associate director of housing services Kimberly Proulx said.
“Loss of privileges, maybe students can participate but can’t pull in roommates, or additional repercussions or sanctions,” Proulx said. “It could impact a student’s status at the university, like even university probation. It could impact other things, not just housing.”
Proulx said these students typically have good intentions and don’t realize they’re breaking the rules.
“We don’t really think students are doing this with malintent, but they’re not realizing the whole impact and how it trickles down,” Proulx said.
Luke Hajdasz is a staff writer for The Daily Campus. He can be reached via email at luke.hajdasz@uconn.edu.
