How to Use Campus Resources

          I choose to practice my referral of campus resources on Timothy's case of not getting along with his roommate because that is a situation that I don't have experience with. I loved my roommate and like in the scenario, still talk to her often. However, I remember by the end of the year last year that there were many people who weren't so crazy about their's showing this is an all too common issue with freshmen and their dorm mates.
       First off, I decided that this a situation with moderate severity. It definitely needs to get taken care of before things get too serious, or crazy as Timothy would say, but no one's life is at stake so taking a little time to think things over won't hurt anyone. Then, I would move on to talking to Timothy more about this problem and asking questions. The two statements that he made, "he's crazy," and "everyone has noticed the tension", isn't enough information to figure out what the real problem is. So my first questions would be based around figuring out what is really going on. Is it something like the roommate is a slob/neat freak or does he come in too late at night or is mean and yell at Timothy? Is he breaking one of their mutual agreements on their roommate contract? Digging into the issue is crucial! I would also ask Timothy what he thought his options were and what he has thought about doing. Sometimes just talking things out like this can be enough to solve the issue if the student realizes that the issue really isn't all that bad.
     However, if it is something serious and Timothy feels like he really does need more help, I would first upfront tell him that I don't know everything about changing roommates or dorms and that that is something that his Community Adviser or Hall Director would be best at. Like we talked about in class, taking this step could be difficult so I would encourage this action by talking about how helpful and friendly my CA was when I lived in the dorms. Additionally, I would remind him that he is not the only person to ever have an issue with a roommate and the CA's are well equipped to assist in solving them. I don't think that it would be necessary for me to personalize this situation unless I happened to know their CA or hall director; I definitely think this is one of those times that we can't walk them to their CA's door or go and yell at their roommate.
     Finally, to followup on this situation, I would try and pull Timothy aside after class or shoot him an e-mail to see if he has done anything about the situation and if yes, find out if that helped or not, and then help him talk through what the next steps need to be if it's not resolved.