Students cope with roommate hassles

By Megan Knowles

Coping with roommates and their annoying habits is something most college students must deal with.

Roommates Paul Molidor, a sophomore communications major, and Chris Frantisak, a freshman physics major, said they get along most of the time.

But sometimes Molidor complains about his roommate’s guitar playing—especially when he is studying or on the phone.

“Sometimes, if I don’t want to hear it, he’ll just start playing and then he’ll go into the bathroom to play, which has better acoustics,” Molidor said.

“We don’t really deal with our problems, we just live with them—no compromises, no struggles, no arguments,” Frantisak said.

“There’s no need to compromise,” he said. “It’s just differences of opinion and we have to be open minded.”

Suzy Bohigian, a junior marketing major, and Christine Fitzpatrick, a junior special education major have been roommates for more than two years and said they get along well.

“When you live with someone for three years, you start to overlook their bad habits and you get used to them,” Fitzpatrick said.

Bohigian agreed. “We’re not competing, because if we were in the same major we’d probably be competing against each other for grades,” she said.

Senior economics major Paul Novotny said he got along with most of the roommates that he had.

“When I first lived with one of my roommates, I learned to accept the differences because everything was new, but once I started to pick up on the annoying habits, it got on my nerves,” Novotny said.

“You learn to deal with them because you figure you annoy him too,” he said.

Susan Sharp, a Neptune graduate residence hall assistant, said when roommates are having a problem, they should talk to their RAs.

Sharp said the RA will suggest to write a contract between the roommates. If the complaint is about one roommate staying up too late, Sharp said the contract might say that every other night, the lights can stay on late.

“(If things do not work out), they can get a room change, but it usually doesn’t go that far,” Sharp said.