Dormitory Reform - Choose your roommates

Chen Hongbiao

Computer Science 1303 Persuasive Speech

Speech Title/Topic: Give the right of choosing roommates to students.

General Purpose: To persuade.

Specific Purpose: To persuade the audience that current system of dormitory assignment has great shortages. After hearing my speech, the audience will agree that there is a need of reform and they will take actions.

Intended Audience Outcome: To convince the audience of my claim and urge them to promote the reform.

Organizational Structure: Problem-Cause-Solution Pattern, Claim of Policy

Thesis: The method of dormitory assignment is inconsiderate at many Chinese universities. The system needs to be reformed.

I. Introduction

1. Attention Getter

I would like to begin my speech by asking you some questions here: Have you ever got mad by your roommates’ loud music at midnight? Have you ever been annoyed by your roommates’ alarm clock buzzing in early morning? Have you ever thought why you were there? Have you ever thought what if you could choose your roommates at the beginning?

2. Narration

If you answers are yes, you are not alone. China Youth Daily reports that about 68% interviewed university students have considered asking to change their dormitories because of the roommate conflicts. When they were asked about the best way to match roommates, the first answer is to match roommates based on their own personal lifestyle and their roommate preferences. There is no doubt that the interpersonal relationship in dormitory will significantly influence the quality of campus life which students experience for four years. The tense roommate relationships can harm students’ well-being in both study and life.

3. Thesis&&Credibility

I deeply know how much harm it can do because I was once a victim. When I could not sleep due to my roommate’s loud music, I was thinking about why I was there and try to find a radical solution. After reading a score of research papers for this topic and making a class survey, I am surprised to find that the inconsiderate dormitory assignment is a very common phenomenon and many schools pay scant attention to it for a long time.

4. Preview

Tonight, we are going to discuss the problems caused by the current housing system at our school, and explore some effective solutions. Let us start by looking at the need for the reform of the dormitory assignment rules.

II. Body

1. Main Point A

The current dormitory assignment system has great shortage, which can harm students’ physical and psychological growth.

a. As we all know, every year incoming freshmen at northeastern university will be placed into dormitories mainly based on their majors and classes. If you are lucky, you will be matched with roommates who have compatible lifestyles with yours and you will have a good time in your harmonious dormitory. Unfortunately, using this random assignment method, most of the students will suffer an issue of living with people who have incompatible lifestyles with them, which tends to cause conflicts in dormitory.

• My class survey shows that 83 percent of you have been so annoyed by your roommates that you wanted to live in another room. In this case, the roommate relationship will become tenser and tenser because of the disputes between roommates about life habits such as bed times and noise levels in the room. And a strained dormitory environment can harm students’ physical and psychological well-being.
• According to a paper about the relationship between roommate friendliness and social skills development, a poor roommate relationship can cause more physical illness, more psychological stress and less involvement in college activities.¹

b. What is worse, when you are suffering and intend to apply to change your room, the current dormitory regulation provides you with a complicated procedure and little chance of success. So the students have to endure a painful living circumstance where the accumulated complaints and decreased tolerance among roommates may lead to extreme tragedies.

• It is hard to forget Fudan university poisoning case. In 2013, a Fudan University graduate student, Huang Yang, was poisoned to death by his roommate because of disharmonious roommate relationship.²

Transition: We have seen the seriousness of the problems caused by the current dormitory assignment system, now let us explore some solutions.

2. Main Point B

Try to explore what is a reasonable dormitory assignment system.

a. Let me make a clarification first. Is a quiet person more admirable than a communicative person? Are early risers better than night owls? I do not know and we do not discuss them here. Because everybody has their own version of what is a satisfying life, there is nothing wrong with them. The problem is the random assignment rule, which is likely to assign these incompatible people the same room.

b. So how to design an ideal rule to avoid the problem? Well, I think we can draw on the experience of foreign universities such as Cornell University where students will be matched with roommates with compatible lifestyle preference profiles which they complete in the housing application.³

For decades, some famous universities like Stanford believed that putting people in uncomfortable situations with a complete stranger was an essential learning part of college. But in recent years, universities have moved to more modern systems - by 2012, about 70 percent of schools have allowed incoming freshmen to select roommates based on a preference survey. Julie Weber, director of housing at New Mexico State, said “After choosing roommate by themselves, the number of students who asked to switch roommates dropped 40 percent, and the students’ GPAs were higher.”⁴

c. So from the experience of foreign universities, we can naturally conclude that an ideal dormitory assignment rule must include three parts as follows.

• First, before incoming freshmen arrive on campus, they will be asked to list out personal preferences and roommate preferences in the housing application. Students can request that his/her roommates should not be smokers, although he/she is a smoker. Maybe someone does not care about whether their roommates are smokers.
• Second, after school matches roommates based on the application, students have to live with their roommates for one week called trial period. This section is designed for students to give their room assignment a chance and for schools to have enough time to complete a room census.
• Third, after one week trial period, schools should provide a convenient room change procedure for students who still cannot get along with their roommates, called green channel.

d. In fact, some domestic universities have begun to reform the dormitory assignment system following the above principles. And it also has proved that the reform is practical.

• In 2014, Shanghai Jiao Tong University declared that every incoming freshman will be asked to list their preferences like sleeping habit for the room arrangement.⁵
• In 2015, Nanjing University of Science and Technology also announced that freshmen can use roommate matching program to help select their roommates. These reforms have made a promising results that students are more satisfied with dormitories and have more energy to take on campus life.⁶

III. Conclusion

1. Review

In conclusion, the current dormitory assignment rules should be reformed because it is likely to cause a tense living situation which will harm the students’ physical and psychological health.

2. Restatement of Thesis

An ideal assignment system must be designed to help students choose their roommates, including preference survey, trial period and green channel.

3. Peroration

To achieve the reform, I need your help. The first thing I need you to do is to let more people know about this idea, especially students. It is a truth that everyone has the right to pursue their happiness. Since you can choose your university, your major, your work, why you cannot choose your roommates? The second thing I need you to do is to send a letter to our school leaders. This thing is simple because NEU has a website called President Mail Box, but it need some courage. However, I am glad to see from my class survey that 67 percent of you are brave enough to propose this idea to our headmaster. And I will be the first one to send the letter! Let us take action now!

There will be no complaint in dormitory anymore.

Let the school hear our voice! We will be remembered. Thank you!

References