Two years after calling it quits, a college dropout is refusing to leave her dorm room at Hunter College. Lisa S. Palmer owes $94,000 in unpaid residence hall charges and has paid no heed to the many vacate notices that the college has served her.
Palmer contends that Hunter College prevented her from registering for fall 2016 classes after she disputed her housing and tuition bill. By this point, she was in her sixth year at Hunter. Although she has been able to stay in the dorms rent-free, she believes she has been treated “unfairly.” Hunter says their dorms are only for full-time students who maintain a minimum GPA and actually pay their room and board — how unfair!
Even though she made the decision for herself to stay put, she complains that she feels “very isolated” and says that dorm life is “really lonely” for someone of her age. She’s 32 years old and works for an architecture firm. Hunter College is now trying to use the courts to evict her, but in the meantime, she’s digging in her heels.
“I plan on fighting the lawsuit and while I fight it, I’m going to stay,” Palmer told the New York Post.
Over the last decade or so, academic institutions have gone above and beyond to make college life more “inclusive,” but have they gone too far? “Making Excellence Inclusive” is one of the Association of American Colleges & Universities’ guiding principles that have inspired hundreds of schools across the country. These institutions believe that the so-called “snowflake generation” needs to be coddled and shielded from any and all real-world conflict as they advance their view of how the world should be.
Palmer is a great example of where all of that oversensitivity and indoctrination can lead. She obviously feels so entitled to live on campus without pay that she is actually offended by the school’s efforts to boot her out. She feels victimized by a school that has no obligation to provide her housing in the first place.
Whether it’s hearing a conservative speaker on campus or an issue as basic as this, many colleges have prevented their students from learning about how the world really works. Palmer should be pitied for her lack of life skills after living at the Hunter campus for six years.
Still, why anyone would want to live in a 100-square-foot single for longer than they had to remains a mystery.
Brendan Pringle (@BrendanPringle) is a freelance journalist in California. He is a National Journalism Center graduate and formerly served as a development officer for Young America’s Foundation at the Reagan Ranch.
