Displaced LUX students will move on campus

Students living in dorm rooms with empty beds might be getting unexpected roommates this weekend.

LUX at Central Park residents have been given the option of moving on campus until construction on the Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard complex is completed.

On-campus students who have an empty bed in their rooms received an email Thursday telling them they could be getting a roommate between today and Sept. 5.

Rick Bradley, associate director for UNC Housing and Residential Education, said if all of LUX’s more than 370 residents take the University up on its offer, most open dorm spaces will be filled.

“All upperclassmen students who have an empty space in their room are likely to get one of those students from LUX,” Bradley said.

Bradley said no students will be added to freshman halls, and people with single rooms will not be affected.

He said housing officials will try to notify people that they will be getting a new roommate as soon as LUX residents sign the community living standards agreement, but that may not be possible because of the Labor Day holiday weekend.

“If the LUX students return those agreements back to us and then move a day later, we won’t have the ability to give everyone notice,” he said.

Paola Ibe, a senior biology major who has had a LUX resident assigned to her room, said she had not been notified personally that she was getting a new roommate, but only received the email sent to all people with empty beds in their rooms.

“I moved in expecting to have a roommate and then they didn’t assign me one,” she said. “And now that school’s starting and I’m trying to get into the swing of things, they tell me I’m going to have a roommate, and it’s really inconvenient.”

The nearly 400 students who signed leases with LUX have been living in hotels since their scheduled move-in date of Aug. 10.

Alie Hrabe, spokesman for LUX’s parent company Trinitas, said in an email that the complex is putting the finishing touches on the apartments and working with the town to get the necessary inspections done.

LUX residents received emails Thursday notifying them that they will receive temporary on-campus housing assignments, even though they may not need them.

One group of residents received emails from LUX that said “We feel confident that your unit will be move-in ready on Sept. 5,” while another group was told “We now think there is a strong probability that your unit will not be ready Sept. 5.”

Students who choose to take the on-campus housing offer will get $400 VISA gift cards each week to pay for expenses and free moving services.

Both emails stated that LUX residents could also choose to terminate their leases at no cost.

Junior Brianna Henley, a journalism and dramatic art double major, said she plans to take the double room she was assigned in Spencer if her LUX apartment isn’t ready by Sept. 5.

“Canceling a lease and finding something else is going to be harder, especially since I’m going abroad in the spring,” she said.

Henley said she’s disappointed that she still can’t move into her apartment.

“There were a lot of rumors circulating that we were going to be out of the hotels by the 5th, and I thought that meant we’d been moving into LUX, not on-campus,” she said.

city@dailytarheel.com

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Timeline compiled by online editor Paige Ladisic and assistant online editor Kelsey Weekman.