Middle Tennessee State University - Midlander Yearbook (Murfreesboro, TN)

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apartment complexes pay steep de- posit payments in order to receive utilities and other public services. High rents pose yet another problem. In a trailer shared by two students in a Murfreesboro mobile home park, a freshman from Jasper, Tenn., is plagued by the vague fear that he will be arrested someday because his roommate, a senior from Chatta- nooga, leaves bags of marijuana on top of the refrigerator. Married students strive to keep up their grades while managing a house- hold and keeping a job. The high cost of practically everything forces them onto penny-pinching budgets and frugal lives. Men who live in fraternity houses enjoy the convenient parties; how- ever, like dormitory men, privacy is a scarce commodity. The necessi- ties that dormitory students never think twice about, such as adequate heat, plumbing, and electricity, are often deficient. It is no wonder that the atmosphere surrounding a student and the stu- dent ' s attitude toward college life are greatly influenced by where he lives — in a dormitory, campus apart- ment, married students ' housing or off-campus housing of any type. While it has often been said that a man ' s (or woman ' s) home is his cas- tle, the fact remains that no situa- tion is perfect. It follows that resi- dents are never completely perfect, either. Most of the gripes voiced by MTSU students about their housing arrange- ments resolve themselves under two main headings: Lack of privacy and lack of personal freedom. These com- plaints, in varying form, were shared by almost all students, whether they lived on or off campus. i Although making friends with reommates, fraternity brothers, or quadmates is entertaining and fun in the beginning, the newness of living in close soon wears off. Everyone needs a certain amount of privacy, and unfortunately this privacy, is not always available in the dormitory or the off-campus house. The prospect of an intruder walk- ing into one ' s room with no advance notice is a very real one. (Is it a friend? A burglar? A policeman? A woman? A stranger?) The first im- pulse, to kill the invader, is usually checked for fear of messy legal com- plications. However unlikely it seems to these unfortunates at the time, though, most of them will neither be robbed, arrested, raped or killed by these mysterious visitors, and most off-campus and dormitory residents P— PfP

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-!l MOUSE I CASUALTY COUNT Kia£D: numw wounded: I CAPTURED: HOME IS HIS HASSLE You are what you are because you live where you do A first -semester freshman girl of thought, growing more and more by Kathy Naylor A first -semester freshman girl comes in from a date at 2:12 a.m. Her identification card is promptly con- fiscated. Groups of male dormitory residents ignore writing term papers and study- ing for tests. Instead of performing these rather vital tasks, they leave their rooms in a group. A few minutes later, the screams of hysterical young women merge with the amused gig- gles of other girls as the dormitory men, massed outside the women ' s window, scream We want panties! We want panties! Commuters begin to sweat through the energy crisis. As gasoline prices rise, car pools become serious objects of thought, growing more and more popular. As Sunday gasoline sales shrink away, commuting students realize they have a problem. After they arrive at school, they face the ex- asperation of finding a parking space within a mile of their class. Com- muters often miss the enjoyable ac- tivities of campus life that dormitory residents plan and execute because of these problems. In an off-campus rental house that six students share, greasy dishes moulder in the sink unclaimed and ants trail across the bedroom floor to and from the dregs of a Coke bottle three days empty. Students who live in off-campus

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will keep their sanity. Economics dictates the sacrifice of privacy of those in off-campus apart- ments also. Because of inflation and the high rents a student must pay, an apartment dweller can rarely live alone. The second major area of concern was the lack of respect for student rights and freedoms. This issue was discussed rather frequently on cam- pus this year as it was challenged on several levels during the year. Many became involved in the squabble over visitation between members of the opposite sex in J and K apartment complexes. A verbal promise of visitation rights in public areas extended by the ad- ministration was misinterpreted by students to mean the individual apartments, and before the mess was defined (much less resolved) both sides were stalemated and nowhere close to an understanding. Students felt that their basic rights as free adults were being infringed upon. They wanted to be treated as mature members of the university community. The old bugaboo ques- tion rose again: Does attendance at a university negate a student ' s rights as a citizen? In the freshman dormitories, wom- en were subject to the rule requiring that first-semester women be signed into their dormitories by 2 a.m. Prac- tically all university students are above legal age, and should not be re- strained, pointed out critics of the hours system. They also pointed to the total absence of hours for fresh- man men as evidence of the justice of their cause. However, they didn ' t point to the strict hours system for all women that has slowly been jetti- soned over the past years, making the cause more and more minor. Still, the whole matter was a classic case for the women ' s liberationists and the civil libertarians to work over. Meanwhile, students who lived at home were often plagued by en- croachments on their freedoms from their parents rather than any ad- ministration hassle. Well-meaning parents often forced their offspring out of the house so they could live their own lives. Everyone finished the year with their own impressions of their partic- ular housing situation, bearing their own peculiar scars from their person- alized crises. Some carried bad im- pressions that would last as long as any fond memories of the university; others remembered the good times shared with the friends they had gained through their own particular housing experience. The optimistic ones will recall popcorn parties, panty raids, trick- or-treat escapades, etc.; pessimists will remember hassles with utility representatives, drafty houses, cramped living quarters, car trouble and whatever. It ' s all a matter of perspective.