Scotch Tape & Red Tape

College. It is that place where many of us have left the nest and are finally on our own. Then comes the terms of ‘roommate’, ‘suitemate’, ‘hallmates’. Usually these are people we do not know that come from very different backgrounds and surroundings than ourselves. Sometimes there are some things as simple as clashes of culture or belief. Then there are other times where there are things become even more difficult. This was the situation where I found that Scotch tape and Red tape aren’t too different.

My first year at the university my roommate was caught for smoking ‘pot’ in our room by the campus police. My suitemates and I were the ones that made the call. On occasions before then I had came home to find that same smell hanging in the air so I, unfortunately, became familiar with it. I moved in to my dorm this year with higher hopes for my living situation. I had moved into a single, so I would have no roommate, but I still had a suitemate, one that I would share the bathroom with. We talked and things seemed to go well at the beginning. We seemed to get along well. I borrowed a movie and returned it to him. He asked to borrow my Scotch tape, but had not returned it. I shrugged it off thinking he mught have just forgot and would get it back to me when he remembered. Then I began coming home, going into the bathroom and finding that same smell of pot hanging in the air. Then more disturbances began starting. His friends and he began coming back drunk at all hours of the early morning, yelling and cussing at each other. Then when they would use the bathroom they would forget to unlock my door. I talked to him about it and he said it would not happen again. Yet it continued happening. Every time I would have to look for my RA (Resident Assistant) or go to the front desk to get the door unlocked. He also began turning his music up to high levels, leaving it on repeat and leaving the room, sometimes until the next morning. I filed a report to my RA and found I had not been the only resident to file a complaint. My suitemate had already violated several rules in his Single Student Housing Contract (Campus Living on Campus handbook pg 32-34). He had also violated his hall mates’, including my own, right as in the Resident’s Bill of Rights (Campus Living pg 42). Still his behavior went highly unchecked and unnoticed by management.

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