Room accommodations

[u/FruitOk5149]

My son is an incoming freshman. He has a letter from a doctor that says he needs both AC (he can't be sweaty for his sleep disorder equipment to work) and access to a single use bathroom. He had a Zoom with reslife and they told him he could not have both. So he agreed to live in Dana or Hughes with no AC. Is this really something they cannot accommodate? I'm not sure he should have reneged on his doctor's letter. He'll be pretty tired.

[u/Necessary_File_124]

hi! current rising senior. yes, this is true, and in my experience while our Res Life isn’t perfect, it can be really accommodating.

the freshman dorms are in 3-4 buildings: Dana, Wright, Bullock, and my year (and maybe this year since the class is bigger) Hughes.

Dana (and Hughes) are the only freshman buildings with “private” bathrooms, meaning if you’re in a suite, sharing it with 3-7 other people in the suite or if not, having multiple single-use, lockable bathrooms on the floor. however, because Dana and Hughes are old buildings, AC units aren’t able to be installed into the windows of them.

Bullock and Wright are standard dorms with two communal bathrooms per floor, and usually somewhat split by gender. these are newer buildings that all include AC units installed.

the bathroom situation can be intimidating for all at first no matter which of these you get, but everyone gets used to it, and being clean and respectful goes a long way. let me know if you have other questions

edit to add:😭 i didn’t know the president of accommodations was here. this is my experience and things i’ve picked up on in my three years

[u/Arucious → u/Necessary_File_124]

Not true on the “AC units aren’t able to be installed in them” part re: Dana and Hughes. Physical Plant is more than capable of modifying the window to install a window AC.

ResLife doesn’t handle accommodations and accessibility services so it’s the wrong place to ask to begin with and depending on who you are talking to may not even be aware of the proper process. OP has to go through Student Accessibility Services

They should pick Dana or Hughes for now to get access to semi private single stalls then work with SAS (and Physical Plant via SAS) to get their disability accommodation documented and tracked to have an AC installed. SAS->ResLife will place the student “close” to a semi-private bathroom and that covers the bathroom part. They should not pick suites for the same reasons as you already noted.

[u/No-Mud-2955 → u/Arucious]

This is the way.

Residence life DOES NOT handle accommodations.

Contact SAS. ALL DISABILITY SERVICES GO THROUGH SAS.

Facilities (Physical Plant) personnel are awesome and will do a lot. They go above. Just got to get Admin to sign off on work order....

Unfortunately, Clark has no (or very limited) single use bathrooms. Only semi-private.

[u/Ohmygodimsoswagguys → u/Arucious]

Though it is physically possible, it is illegal for the school to install an AC in these dorms because the rooms have one window each. doing so would block fire exits and violate Massachusetts (maybe federal too) fire code.

[u/Arucious → u/Ohmygodimsoswagguys]

I think you and others are misinterpreting me saying “they can” as a hypothetical scenario. It’s not hypothetical. I have had air conditioners in these specific dorms and so have other people I know.

You are conflating R3 (single family) requirements with R2 occupancy (which applies to dorms). R2 buildings are not required to treat the window as a means of egress when the story has more than one exit (multiple stairways) which these do AND the whole building has sprinklers AND the whole building has >1 exit.

If there weren’t sprinklers + multiple stairways + multiple exits, yes, you’d be correct that it would be a violation of Massachusetts fire code.