Last-minute appeal by students prompts reversal of housing policy

Because o f an eleventh-hour plea w ith the Saint Mary’s adm inistration, studen ts picking room s for the fall sem ester’s on cam pus housing this w eek will no t have to w ork around approxim ately 100 previously blocked-off rooms. An open m eeting o f approxim ate­ ly 300 students w ith College Presi­ den t John Duggan led to changes w hich left m ost o f the studen ts op ­ timistic. As Sophom ore Louise Berezny said, “We are really excited — now we have a chance at room s w e want to live in, instead o f room s w e are forced to live in.” Problem s started last w eek w hen studen ts d iscovered that 26 room s in LeMans, 33 room s in Holy Cr oss and 58 room s in M cCandless Halls had been reserved for nex t year’s freshm an class. The sophom ore class council began a petition drive over the w eekend and eventually gathered ten pages o f signatures. The petition was presen ted to Dug­ gan yesterday by th ree sophom ore representatives. Meanwhile, signs w ere posted in the halls, asking students to gather in the LeMans lobby at 4 p.m.. By the tim e Duggan arrived, approxim ately 300 freshmen, sophom ores and juniors w ere waiting. Duggan said he had been unaw are of many o f the housing changes and arranged an im m ediate m eeting w ith D irector of Housing Pat Rissmeyer. The decision Duggan and Ris­ sm eyer made to unblock room s was effective im mediately, in tim e for last night’s junior room picks. Sophom ore Class T reasurer Janet Biegel helped to w rite the petition and was one of the officers to m eet w ith Duggan personally. She said Duggan seem ed to be misinform ed on the background of the housing in ­ tegration plan but after talking with the studen ts he was anxious to straighten the situation out. Duggan told Biegel after his m eeting to speak w ith Rissmeyer o r Dean of Students Sr. Karol Jackow ski about any changes that w ere made. According to Biegel, Rissmeyer said room s w ere unblocked “in light of the num ber of pe titions and the num ber o f students present to m eet w ith Dr. Duggan." Many students had not been opposed to the integration of dorms, but "just to the way it was handled. ” This year’s freshm en and sopho­ m ores w ere to be the classes most affected by the change. Many claim ed that they thought sections w ere going to be blocked off instead of individual room s until the housing maps w ere posted in the Lemans lobby. Duggan w ould not com m ent on the housing changes, and Rissmeyer and Jackowski w ere unavailable.