About a dozen students locked out Saturday night as break housing filled up

Pull quote:”They kicked us out of outside,” Anderson said.

Several students returned to Carbondale from spring break Saturday night on a sold-out Amtrak train only to find no cozy place on campus to settle down for the night.

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About a dozen students were stranded at the Amtrak station and the small foyer of Neely Hall after being denied access to break housing, or spare rooms, which sold out earlier that day.

Crystal Bouhl, University Housing spokeswoman, said this is the first time break housing has sold out for spring break.

Beth Scally, associate director of housing-residence life, said only two students were denied rooms during reservation time, which is open as long as there are rooms available.

“If they needed it, we could have made adjustments,” Scally said. “But if they just show up, we can’t do anything to fix it. The students need to plan ahead.”

Freshmen Joe Lenox, Walt Anderson and Adam Alcozer, all from northern Illinois, said both trains were sold out Sunday. Their only option was to take the train Saturday or miss class by taking the train Monday.

The trio lugged their bags from the station to campus late Saturday night only to discover the University was not welcoming them back with open arms.

Walt Anderson, an undecided freshman from Rockford, said they were denied access to their rooms and the lobby of Neely Hall and decided to sit outside Mae Smith Hall. The police then told them they were not allowed to be on campus and asked them to leave.

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“They kicked us out of outside,” Anderson said.

Anderson said they wandered back to the train station, where several other people were also waiting, and met someone who told them Neely Hall was not kicking people out of the foyer.

By that time, it was about 3 a.m., and the group decided to return to Neely Hall. The trio spent the night in a small lobby almost half the size of a dorm room with three other students who were caught in the same situation.

“The entire time we were in Neely, the staff sat there watching TV, watching us in the vestibule,” Anderson said.

Nik Kern, a student worker in the Trueblood Area Office, said the students should have received a packet from their student resident assistant informing them how to reserve a room for break housing. He also said many signs were posted around the residence halls to remind students of how to sign up.

During break housing, students stay in rooms in the basements of some of the residence halls and must pay $9.50 a night.

Lenox, a freshman from Rockford studying computer engineering, said he did receive the break housing instruction packet but had been granted access to his room a day early after Thanksgiving break and figured it would not have been a problem.

“I didn’t think it would be necessary,” Lenox said. “Why would I pay $9.50 to sleep in a basement if they had let me in before?”

Bouhl said University Housing made special arrangements to open the residence halls early in the fall because there were other things going on around campus. Also, Bouhl said break housing is limited and must be reserved as early as possible.

“Unfortunately, they showed up and there was no space available,” Bouhl said. “They should make prior arrangements, or there is no guarantee they’ll get break housing.”

Bouhl said reserving a break housing room is similar to a hotel in that a reservation has to be made in order to be granted access a room.

“This is an unfortunate incident,” Bouhl said. “We regret that we couldn’t put them up for the night, but there was no space for them.”

Adam Alcozer, a freshman from Villa Park studying computer engineering, said if they would have been kicked out of Neely Hall, they would have had nowhere else to go. They could not afford a hotel room for the night.

“It was a great welcome home,” Alcozer said.

Reporter Julie Engler can be reached at [email protected]