Approximately 450 UT students housed at the Barrymore Hotel (Formerly Howard Johnson Plaza) are now dealing with a sudden transportation change, as shuttle pick-up and drop-off for students is now sequestered to the back of the hotel. This contrasts the first half of the semester, most of its UT residents’ first semester, where it was held in front of the hotel. The Barrymore hotel and Residence Life are obligated to join together and notify students efficiently and uniformly in situations that affect the students housed there, and in this situation they did not honor this obligation.
Officially, the change isn’t actually a change, according to the Assistant Director of the Office of Residence Life, Chris Futch. He said that “historically, the pick-up location for the Barrymore hotel has been behind the hotel,” and that this is all a matter of student occupancy versus guest occupancy and to prevent confusion in guests and student shuttles. This is logical and would not have been an issue had the level of notification not been subpar. Some students, like freshman nursing major Jenny Cedeno, “got a flyer on [their] door,” but not everyone received clear, individual notification. Freshman communications major Lahar Sanantarai did not receive one, and instead was notified on the day of the change by a couple of “posters in the elevators and one on my floor.” Cedeno was told about the change, and that’s why it didn’t upset her like many of her peers. Clear explanation of the situation was, and still is, needed to show that UT Barrymore students are not being treated like an embarrassment by having the stop behind the hotel.
There is a great deal of confusion regarding the change. Many students, like freshman business administration major, Sonam Kale, believe that the shuttle stop was moved because the hotel “didn’t want guests knowing that this is a college dorm.” It is hard to argue with this when there is no mention of UT student use on the hotel’s website, not even in a passing comment. Instead, the closest they come to referencing students is listing the UT under “Tampa Area Attractions.” If one scours travel websites looking at reviews for the hotel, however, only a few mention students at all and even less are upset by their presence. Therefore, if guests’ perception of students living at the hotel does factor into the Barrymore’s thinking, then it’s actually pretty irrelevant and would not justify the change.
Sanantarai, also thinks “the owner of the Barrymore hotel is embarrassed” that many of the floors are being leased to UT for student housing. For residents to feel hidden when they pay thousands of dollars for room and board to live there is unacceptable and needs to be addressed by the Barrymore and Residence Life immediately. The Barrymore Hotel and Residence Life need to take bigger strides in assuring students that this change is for their benefit rather than an effort to hide them from hotel guests, if that truly is their reasoning. Also, if the benefit for the student really is their top priority, they should have made it absolutely clear when and where the stop would be changed and should have supplied clear reasons.
In addition to their feeling hidden, many students have been inconvenienced as a part of this sudden revert. Many students missed the shuttle on the first days because of poor notification, with some students receiving flyers and others just seeing a posted notice the day of the change. Kale said she “missed it on the first day because I didn’t know.” Notices posted in the building were insufficient as they provided no reason, just directions to the new shuttle stop location.
Another one of the unlucky ones to miss the shuttle on the first days after the change was Sanantarai. He claims “when the shuttles used to be in the front, the drivers watched the elevators and waited for you, but now even if I get down there on time I have to run down the long hallway to make the shuttle, but by the time I get to the end it’s gone.” Hannah Olds, a freshman with an undecided major, has the same problem as she also finds it “inconvenient because when you’re walking out…you have to check in the back” to see if the shuttle is there. This is an unforeseen and unjust consequence of the stop being moved. Students must now arrive even earlier to the shuttle stop to make it to class on time, and as new college freshmen who is still adjusting to the major transition that is college, another disruption on their plate can cause more hassle than the Barrymore Hotel and Residence Life may realize.
Many of the Barrymore student residents have unfairly experienced ill effects because the shuttle pick-up location was changed in this manner. It is not the move that is so horrible because the stop has been there before. Due to the lack of analogous information being shared, students have missed or been late to classes, wrongfully feeling like an embarrassment to the school that they pay so much money to attend. It could easily have been avoided. Students deserve proper notification of changes that affect them, and this obligation was clearly left unmet in the case of UT students housed at the Barrymore.
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