Sixteen students and a Community Facilitator who were supposed to move in to the former Sigma Nu house on G Street this fall are still being housed in the GW Inn. The Community Living and Learning Center says the house is awaiting final permit approvals before the students can move in. But now that Family Weekend is looming, the hotel needs the rooms to house visiting parents. CLLC should have accommodated these students in acceptable alternative housing long ago. Midterms are fast approaching, and these students are still living in temporary housing. This situation is unacceptable and does a disservice to the students caught up in the shuffle.

CLLC did offer to house these students, most of whom are seniors, in Fulbright Hall, but the rooms there are a far cry from accommodations seniors expect and should receive. Rooms in New Hall or City Hall would be more appropriate.

But the larger issue is CLLC agreeing to house students in a facility that was not and still is not ready. Plus, CLLC officials deny responsibility for the situation when they are the ones ostensibly in charge of housing students on campus and issue the license agreements for on-campus beds. Their offer of second-rate housing and denial of responsibility for the situation is indicative of poor customer service in the campus housing system. Add to that the fact that students living in the GW Inn are being charged the same amount as students living in a Madison Hall double, a building with adequate laundry facilities, ethernet access and affordable University telephone service – amenities the hotel lacks.

Effective customer service is, and should be, an important goal of the campus housing system. Students should receive the accommodations they are promised at the outset of the school year. Housing students in hotel rooms is a quick fix that satisfies no one and does not help students achieve academic success.

GW should fix this situation immediately. These students deserve the level of accommodations they were promised and would almost certainly have received had the University not attempted to house them in a building that is still not ready.