While other students at campuses around the country are taking advantage of the “super single” option — rooms with double the space but only one resident — no students are choosing the option at UT, according to UT officials.
Laurie Mackey, director of administrative services at the Division of Housing and Food Services, said DHFS offers basic single rooms, which are 135 square feet, and two types of larger single rooms, both of which are referred to as premium singles. According to Mackey, out of all 6,956 rooms in on-campus residence halls, only 250 are single rooms, and fewer than 200 students have taken advantage of the single option.
“We offer all of the premium singles that we have, which is why I do not see the trend increasing to offer more premium singles in the future,” Mackey said.
DHFS also allows double rooms to be used as singles in San Jacinto Residence Hall, assigning them on the basis of request and availability. Students have to pay as much as they would have to if two people were living in the room, but, according to Mackey, no students are currently utilizing the “super single” option.
“Less than 10 expressed an interest, and, when extended an offer, did not accept it,” Mackey said.
Mathematics freshman Erica Herod said she thinks, if she lived alone, she would have been discouraged, lonely and unmotivated to be productive.
“When one of us is feeling stressed or has a big test, we’re always there to support each other,” Herod said. “Since I’m brand new and don’t have many friends yet, it’s nice to know that when I come home I have a friend, and [that] I live with her and I get to see her all the time.”
Mallory Foutch, English and history senior, said she thinks it’s good to have a roommate when going through a period of transition in order to have someone to talk to about the experience. According to Foutch, living with a roommate also teaches students important lessons for later in life.
“I also think that having a roommate prepares you for life, in general, where you’re going to have to work with people eventually at some point,” Foutch said. “Learning how to live with someone, I think, is great practice for learning how to work in teams or in an office.”
