Inside Out: Students' Apartments to Be Flipped Around

Photo by Gabriela Kressley

For some students living in Hanover, their lives are quite literally about to be flipped inside out.

Select students received an email on Friday that, immediately upon returning from spring break Monday, what has been their bedroom for almost eight months, will soon become their living room. This is due to a mandation from the apartment’s management that no beds should be kept in rooms without a window. 

Hope Feller, a freshman living in Hanover, was taken aback by the email.

“The fact that they are changing all of this so soon to ending school and only giving us a three day notice rubbed salt in the wound a little,” Feller said.

Photo by Gabriela Kressley

Students were told that their beds must be moved into the living room. But aside from that, they are free to choose where the rest of the furniture in the apartment goes and would be able to direct the mandated move taking place Monday morning after spring break.

“The fact that they are changing all of this so soon to ending school and only giving us a three day notice rubbed salt in the wound a little."

“I think that they should have just waited until we moved out to switch everything, and if it was truly time sensitive, then it would’ve been nice to know at the beginning of spring break. It is hard to believe that Hanover is having everyone in this apartment building make sure their bedrooms have a window within three days,” Feller said.

The staff at 10 Hanover declined to comment.

Students, such as Liza Vandenboom, found moving the beds out into the living room disruptive not only to their sleep schedules, but also their study habits. 

“My roomates and I keep super different schedules so it will be hard to have people sleeping in the living room while others will be coming in, going out, cooking, etc. Also, I was talking with my friends, and we all agreed there is no way we can study in the bedroom. The lighting is awful and there’s no window,” Vandenbooms said.

The change will alter the way students’ apartments function. Moving beds into the living space makes it difficult for students to find privacy.

“Since I have ROTC and am in athletics at King’s, I often have to go to sleep and get up early," Feller said. "Usually I can just close the bedroom door and not be bothered and not bother my roommates. Yet with the new layout, if someone is hungry at night they will be turning on the kitchen lights and making noise essentially in our bedroom. There isn’t anything we can do to change it, but the layout of having our kitchen and bedroom being so close is a bit awkward.” 

Not only was the move sudden, but it also was inconvenient for students because it immediately followed spring break and midterm exams.

“Timing is super frustrating," Vandenboom said. "I have midterms this week so it’s annoying to have to deal with all of it at the same time. Also, with break, my roomates and I weren’t even all together until last night. So, we didn’t have much time to talk about a new floor plan.” 

Because it is on such a short notice and brings such a big change, there is concern that it will not just affect the schedules of students, but it could potentially be a point of conflict for whole apartments.

Photo by Gabriela Kressley 

“I think this new arrangement will probably affect roommate contracts significantly, and there might be some conflict that ensues,” Vandenboom said.

The move has students questioning why this is just now becoming an issue when rooms have been set up this way seemingly without concern all year, and for past years as well.

The Housing Director at The King’s College did not respond to request for comment.

“I think, in theory, this is a safe plan. bedrooms should have windows so that people can be kept safe in case of a fire. But I have to laugh a little at this attempt to keep us safer: our windows don’t open more than five inches and we live on the 17th floor. So even though our bedroom is now by a window, we would still be stuck in case of an emergency,” Feller said.

The apartment flip has many students left frustrated and stressed because it is “time sensitive” as stated in the email, and falls at a less than convenient time in the semester.

Despite the sudden flip of her apartment, Feller was able to find one bright side to the rearrangement: “...At least we’ll be closer to the food.”