Can you imagine sleeping in plain view of all of your peers, even when you’re guaranteed your own room and board?

For the first three weeks of class freshmen Lj Lovejoy, Jules Mendiola and two other individuals lived on the second-floor lounge of Kamola Hall. Within the room, four beds sat in each corner with no divider to section off the rooms or shades for privacy from the frequent person who would pass by, according to Mendiola.

All four freshman had applied for housing past the application date, but were all accepted housing. Each of them received notice from housing days after their applications were accepted that guaranteed them their own room, but at a cost. All four freshman would have to live in a temporary dorm room that would last anywhere from 2 weeks up unto a month, according to Lovejoy.

On Friday, Sept. 15, Mendiola showed up to Button Hall at noon for his first year at CWU. He had applied for housing less than one month before, but was granted temporary rooms due to the Housing Department overbooking students into halls. Mendiola was told that he would have a two-day time period to move in, and when he made the trip out from Spanaway for move in day, he wasn’t sure what to expect.

After Mendiola showed up, he was told again that he would be staying in temporary housing for anywhere between two weeks and a month. The housing assistant then showed Mendiola to his room. He followed the housing assistant over to Kamola and up to the second floor to the recreation room and lounge. In each corner of the room, four beds were left flush against the wall. A makeshift closet was in the middle.

When Mendiola got to the makeshift room, both of his other roommates were already moved in. Lj Lovejoy would not be moved in for a few more days. Although the situation felt bleak at the time for these freshmen, Lovejoy and Mendiola learned to accept the small bump in the road.

“We were connected pretty well. We all set our boundaries and stuff in the beginning, so we didn’t really have any problems… we were all pretty laid back and we didn’t really care what other people did. So we were just mostly chilling,” Mendiola said.

Even though they were accepting of their new room, some aspects of living in the Kamola lounge didn’t pan out too well. The doors were hard to lock, there was no privacy in the lounge and it made studying difficult. Mendiola and Lovejoy said that they would have to often take trips to the bathroom just to do a simple chore, such as changing clothes.

“It was really open. We could all see each other,” Lovejoy said.

Since the boys in the lounge were so close, there were some positive aspects that came out from living in such a small space.

Although none of the boys were sure if they had been charged room and board, the price would be fairly steep for their stay in the lounge. Lovejoy and Mendiola paid roughly $553.50 for three weeks of room and board that went into facilitating their small four-bed, one-room setup in the lounge.

Having shared the room in Kamola with two other freshman, the total expenditures for their room and board spent during their stay in Kamola rounds out to around $2,214.

Both Mendiola and Lovejoy both live in Shaw-Smyserr hall now, but they said that they definitely won’t forget their experience anytime soon.

Housing was not available immediately for comment on the incident.