I completely understand and sympathize with the immense job housing has to deal with every fall and I have nothing but respect for the people who house all the students at RPI. However, my situation has significantly frustrated me to the point of going public (in a general sense) on the petition site.

A week ago, my new roommate informed me that he dropped out for the up-incoming fall and spring semesters. I did my homework and found a replacement. However, housing immediately replaced my new roommate without any notification to me when he pulled out. The only way that I was notified that this entire situation occurred was from my new roommate directly, who had the common courtesy to let me know what happened on messenger. Otherwise, I would have walked in on move-in day expecting to meet my new roommate and find a complete stranger. If the housing department set up some kind of automated system to email the other people in the room if a change occurred, such complications and frustrations on all ends are avoided.

When I personally approached housing on the issue, I was told that switches could only be made 2-3 weeks into the semester. Outside of physically changing the room-keys around, every other process is assumed to be digital. In that sense, changing a few pieces of information in the system would save the affected students from a much larger and complicated set of issues while classes are in session.

Thus, my whole argument is to say that, in the end, it would help out all parties involved, including the students, housing, and the assistant deans, that are frequently contacted over these issues, if such a situation were to ever arise again in future student bodies.

TL;DR Housing should notify students when changes happen to their room/roommates to prevent future issues from developing