Planned process or partially freestyle?

With no SUNY wide guidelines, universities are left to cipher through applications and determine for themselves which students qualify for a medical single.

A medical single is when a resident student is granted a single room while paying for a double due to medical circumstances that require them to live alone.

The only guidelines provided by the SUNY system is, this is for extenuating circumstances only and is not meant to be used except as a last resort.

“This is an exception,” said Richard Kolenda, the Assistant Vice President for Residence Life and Housing. “It should be a strict decision making and not something that is automatic and has to be very well scrutinized before a decision will be made.”

At Oswego State, there is a committee of four people, the director of disability services, the director of the counseling center, the director of the health center and Dr. Kolenda.

This committee meets on Monday every two weeks to review the applications for medical singles and to determine whether or not students qualify.

Lillianna Kiel, a junior at Oswego State, has lived in a medical single for the past three semesters.

Kiel’s medical single is for her diagnosed epilepsy.

However, when first applying for a medical single Kiel expressed shock that her anxiety and depression were not viewed as qualifying conditions for a medical single.

“When I looked on the website they said anxiety/depression was not a reasoning, you could not apply for that,” Kiel said.

When asked, she thought that it was odd for her to be granted a medical single for Epilepsy.

Epilepsy is any of various disorders marked by abnormal electrical discharges in the brain and typically manifested by sudden brief episodes of altered or diminished consciousness, involuntary movements, or convulsions, according to Merriam-Webster dictionary.

There are instances, however, were seizures may occur due to sleep deprivation.

Where a roommate may be contributing to a student getting poor sleep in which case a medical single would be a possible solution.

If an episode were to occur when a student was alone, however, it could result in serious health concerns and injuries to the student and even death in some cases.

Due to the lack of control a person would have during an episode, they could fall and hit their head on an object or injure themselves in a variety of ways without someone there to help them or to know that they need help.

According to, U.S. National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health in population-based studies of annual deaths per 10,000 people with epilepsy, there were nearly 5 fatal status epilepticus, nearly 2 drownings, 2–3 excess suicides and nearly 6 excess fatal unintentional injuries.

These statistics illustrate the potential danger that epileptics living alone may face and the concern that may arise with the housing circumstances.

“It is always a concern depending upon the student’s condition whether a student living alone by him or herself is a good idea,” Kolenda said. “Sometimes we do have that question and we follow up to make sure that we have all the good information to make a good decision.”

While Resident Life and Housing may be making its best efforts to follow up with students and ensure the safest and most effective housing situation for them, some students feel that not enough people are aware of their situation.

“I have never heard a word from anybody from Reslife checking in on me,” Kiel said. “Not even my RA [resident assistant] knows.”

Kiel also mentioned how there appears to be a social stigma attached to a medical single.

People in her hall do not ask why she lives alone but instead choose to just ignore her, she said.

The room itself is still set up like a double, with two beds, two desks and two closets, rather than only one set of furniture.

According to Kolenda, medical singles do not go through the lottery process, however, when Kiel reapplied last semester for her medical single she was sent in a loop and continually told she was required to do the lottery with the rest of the students. She spoke with a representative in Reslife and communicated via email regularly.

Kiel said she emailed Kolenda asking specifically to meet with him regarding the process and instead had her email forwarded to the same person who was giving her the wrong answers.

Following the lottery process there were no single rooms left and Kiel had to call the Resident Life and Housing office to speak with someone who told her she should have been able to choose her own room rather than go through the lottery process.

Students who are granted a medical single are supposed to be paying the rate of a double.

“They should not be penalized by paying a single rate, they should be paying a double rate and that is what happens,” Kolenda said.

While this appears to be a black and white statement this is another area of the process that tends to get a little gray with it being in question whether or not students really are being charged for a double or being made to pay for the price of a single.

“I don’t get a reduced rate and I believe that is unfair to the students who have medical reasons,” Kiel said. “Reslife does a lot for the school but they need to reconsider what they’re charging people.”

At first due to the discrepancies it was put to question whether Kiel had in fact reapplied for a medical single, but she did receive confirmation for her medical single for the semester.

“Last semester I got approval for this semester. It was an official letter saying that I was approved which was odd because everything else was via email,” Kiel said.

Without SUNY wide guidelines there are a lot of holes and discrepancies within the process. It is not something that is advertised on campus because it is meant to be a last resort, due to this, the process is not as flawless as many would like.

“They need to revamp the system,” Kiel said. “There are flaws.”

Despite these discrepancies on behalf of Reslife at Oswego State, Dr. Kolenda assures students that the committee is doing its best to ensure the process is as fair as possible, from application to application and student to student.

“Our role is to take their information and apply it into a living situation in how it would be impacting the student,” Kolenda said. “We try to do is be as fair with each application for each student.”

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