The Struggles of Living On Campus at Winthrop

           When a college student first lives in a dormitory, it is certainly a new experience. The student must adjust to living with a stranger, sharing a bathroom with several strangers, homesickness, and all of the other changes that occur with living away from home. Very often, the student will experience problems during this adjustment process.

            One of the most common issues arises with roommates. People from all over the world are coming together on one campus, and through the process of random selection are becoming uncomfortably close to one particular stranger, with completely foreign living habits, who is to become their roommate. There are several students who are more than willing to share their horror stories. One particular student was gracious enough to share one of her experiences with a roommate.

            This female talks of her roommate, who was a foreign student, having severe mood swings and constantly complaining. She would become angry when the student had visitors and at one point she even pushed her down the stairs. The girl was miserable and ended up moving back to her home country. “I’m just really glad she’s gone,” the student says, “It was a nightmare.”

            Another student talks of her previous roommate, who simply did not want to live in the dormitory and wanted a different roommate. "She was a dance major," says the roommate. "I went home for the weekend and when I came back she was gone. She texted me saying that she had moved in with her friend who was a student on campus, and that was it."

            Another common complaint among students living on-campus is parking. There are two types of parking for students, commuter and resident parking. Resident only parking lots are far and few between. The only actual Resident only parking lots at Winthrop University are the few parking spaces that are located in front of the actual resident dormitories. There are at a maximum around 10-20 parking spaces in front of each of these dorms. Anywhere from 200-300 students live in these dorms, many of which have cars. These parking spaces are clearly not enough for the number of students living on campus. There are only a couple of other parking lots that residents can park in. They are: Legion, the area around Wofford and Richardson, and the Stewart parking lot. With the exception of the parking around Wofford and Richardson, these parking lots are also available for Commuters to park in, even though Commuter students already have several other large parking lots to themselves as well, such as Sumter Drive, Eden Terrace, Charlotte Avenue, and Myrtle Drive parking. These Commuters will often even leave cars on campus overnight for several nights in a row. This leaves Residents without anywhere to park except Legion, which a long walk from every resident dorm that is not Wofford/Richardson.  

            Among the stress with roommates, parking and other college student issues, comes homesickness. Most students that first enter college have never lived away from home previously. They have never had to hold the responsibility that comes with living away from parents. This is a huge change, and one that many students find difficult to cope with. Also, there are usually no friends or family members around to ease the burden of solitude and help with the adjustment process. This may cause first year students to visit home often, leaving their grades to the wayside. In extreme cases, they may even drop out.

            Here is a link to the Frequently Asked Questions page for freshman students at Winthrop University. It not only deals with incoming students, but also current students.