Winter is a time of transitions. People greet the new year with champagne and a set of tentative resolutions. Outside, snow and slush replace autumn leaves. For many students, change also comes in the form of living situations.

Some opt to experience dorm life to the fullest, improvising with magazine decor, living off oatmeal and wearing flip flops in the shower. They congregate in the dining room or around the TV and bond over sports and politics.

Other students use the opportunity to move out of residence halls in search of different living conditions.

“Of the students who vacated from the residence halls during autumn quarter, 19 percent of them moved to a sorority or a fraternity and 55 percent moved to other off-campus accommodations,” HFS assignments supervisor Erin Birkenkopf said.

Still others prefer moving to different dorms, with residence halls in north campus being the most popular.

“Many students want to be assigned to double rooms in McCarty or McMahon and other students really want single rooms,” Birkenkopf said.

According to Birkenkopf, one of the biggest challenges is accommodating everyone’s requests.

“With the residence halls over 100 percent capacity, we simply cannot meet everyone’s requests,” Birkenkopf said. “Also, we need to balance the needs of our current residents who want to move to their preferred residence hall or room type with the needs of students on the waiting list who want to be placed in a room as soon as possible.”

Birkenkopf cited readiness for a different living experience as the most popular reason given on surveys for vacating the residence halls.

For Skye Gregory, a first-year student who resided in Lander Hall during fall quarter, the decision to leave stemmed from frustration with the reqiured meal plan and discontent with roommate assignments. Gregory felt the mandatory meal plan forces students to make unnecessary dietary choices and confines them to an unhealthy lifestyle.

“The meal plan, for me, was a constant complication,” Gregory said. “I bought excessive amounts of food, coffee, etc. since I knew I wouldn’t get the money back. I like to eat healthy food, so I usually opted to buy the wraps or salads at Too Convenient, but I hated that they cost me $6 each when I knew I could buy the ingredients and make them myself for far less money.”

In addition, roommate surveys asking for sleeping and smoking preferences often leave much up to fate. In moving to an apartment, Gregory was able to choose a close friend as a roommate.

“My other roommate had very different interests and friends than I did and she had already grown close with the other people in my hall during EFS (Early Fall Start) by the time I moved in,” Gregory said. “We just got off to a bad start, not communicating and going in opposite directions.”

Gregory also pointed out that without the fines imposed by HFS, off-campus housing is sometimes cheaper, adding another advantage to apartment living.

The HFS housing contract states that if you don’t give 20 days notice before you submit your intent to vacate, you forfeit $45 plus the daily room rate for 20 days.

This, in addition to a broken contract fee of $500, can be inconvenient for students who don’t know whether they will be able to undergo informal recruitment in the Greek community, or those who are in the process of finalizing apartment contracts.

“I don’t think it is fair that I should be charged for the supposed 20 days that I have to remain in my room after submitting my intent to vacate,” Gregory said. “With all the students still seeking housing, it isn’t like my room will be left empty and HFS won’t be able to find someone to move in there.”

Reach reporter Sara Grimes at news@dailyuw.com.