IRVINE : Dorm Woes Put Squeeze on Students

Tracy Stokes, a biology major at UC Irvine, doubts that she will be able to maintain her B-plus grade average this year. It’s not that the courses are tougher or that she is studying less. It’s her living arrangement.

Stokes, a sophomore from Los Angeles, lives with three other women in a cluttered, art deco-style living room-turned-dorm on the UCI campus. Delays in construction of two dormitories, which were supposed to have opened this fall, resulted in more than 50 students being crowded three or four to a room in units meant only for doubles.

“It’s really bad; I can’t even study because I don’t have a desk to lay my book on,” Stokes said. “I live out of my suitcases because there is no closet space. I just don’t feel settled in, and the quarter is almost over.”

The new dormitories--Whispering Wood, Woodhall, Balin and Harrowdale--were supposed to be available for the fall semester, but by Sept. 17, only Balin and Harrowdale were ready to take in students.

“We sent out letters about midsummer informing students that there was a problem with one of the residence halls,” said Jim Craig, director of housing. “At that time, we asked if they were interested in living off campus or on--and most preferred on campus.”

But sophomore Kevin Kobayashi, who lives with two other students in a double room, said most people didn’t realize how bad conditions would be.

“We didn’t think they were going to cram us on top of one another,” Kobayashi said. “I feel like this entire semester has been a waste because of what we’ve had to go through.”

School officials began crediting students for the inconvenience; those in rooms of four received $9 credit per day, and those in rooms of three received $6.50 per day.

Officials also promised the students that the dorms would be ready by mid-October. But construction delays postponed the scheduled opening until Wednesday.

Kobayashi said that when he received a letter on Monday about yet another delay, he organized a protest.

“We really just wanted to make a point that we pay too much money in tuition to have to deal with this,” Kobayashi said. “The inconveniences we’ve had to go through have been crazy. I mean, we don’t even have phones lines to the outside world.”

About 35 people gathered outside the housing administration office Wednesday with signs asking the administration to keep its most recent promise that the dormitories would open on Saturday. That latest date was set when the construction company couldn’t finish the stair railings by Wednesday.

But even with a new moving date promised, students are skeptical.

“Seeing is believing,” Kobayashi said. “And I don’t know what to believe anymore.”