In honor of Halloween, the Delphian is giving you a frightfest made personal. Here are some Adelphi students’ “horror stories,” starring every college student’s most-feared monster: the roommate. All names have been changed— for obvious reasons.

"Oh Boy" 

I am currently in my fourth year at Adelphi, and it seems that I have finally a respectful roommate.  Before, however, I felt like I was running through a gauntlet of petty college girls whose parents never had the decency to tell them to shut the door on the way out.  What, were they all born and raised in a barn?  My first roommate, Jill, wasn't so bad.  She was homesick a lot and spent all night crying on the phone with her boyfriend.  This was kind of annoying, but I understood her situation and was willing to endure a few nights of less than perfect sleep.  After her first semester at Adelphi, however, Jill decided she would be happier going to a college closer to home.  After Jill, I chose to room with my friend Katie.  This was a huge mistake.  I found that Katie was very disrespectful.  She snuck her boyfriend into our room every night, borrowed my things without asking, and even broke my computer and refused to pay the maitenence fee to fix it.  As if I didn't learn my mistake from Katie, I switched roommates in order to room with my best friend Elizabeth.  It was only then that I found out that Liz was a complete psychopath.  Liz had classes at 8 a.m. every morning and 8 p.m. every evening.  Instead of sleeping at night however, Liz went to bed after her 8 a.m. class, slept all day, woke up before her 8 p.m. class, and stayed up all night.  This normally wouldn't bother me, except for the fact that no matter how often I asked, she refused to keep quiet.  All night long, she was on the phone with her boyfriend and had her music blaring.  I received, at most, approximately 3 hours of sleep each night.  Liz was also a slob.  She never put anything away.  I would get out of bed in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and step on, what I believe, was a rotting salami sandwich that had been laying on our floor for weeks.  Once she came back from grocery shopping, forgot to put the groceries away, and after about a month, the pungent aroma of rotting chicken and fungified strawberries filled the room.  Our RA and RHD wasn't please, and at one point we had a little court trial-type thing with res-life to discuss the issue.  The state of the room got so bad, at one point, that when combined with my lack of sleep, my immune system got so low that I had been persistently sick enough to be hospitalized.  Even on the night after I returned from the hospital, Liz decided it would be funny to keep me up all night.  You can only imagine the hell she put me through when I told her that I didn't want to room with her the following year.  It wasn't pretty...

-Wendy, Senior

 

"Nice To Meet You"

My worst roommate was the one whose first words to me after introducing himself were, “Yeah, after my pill addiction a couple years ago, I didn’t think I’d ever make it back to college.” - Nick, Senior

 

"The Model"

Before transferring to Adelphi, I lived away at another college that will remain nameless. I had a string of terrible roommates: the first was an aspiring model. She was obsessed with One Tree Hill and designated times where the TV (mine, obviously) could be used for the viewing of this show only (new episodes, old episodes, episodes on DVD). She hated the cinderblock walls, so she signed me up for an allposters.com mailing list. Every inch of wall space was covered in posters, any kind of poster. We had a "Malcolm in the Middle" poster, a mosaic of whales, and entire songs taped everywhere. She took a leave of absence to pursue her "career," but her successor was barely an improvement. She spent most of her time spooning with her boyfriend, who essentially became our third roommate. Sufficiently scarred, I now live at home. - Erin, Senior

 

"Bad Movie"

My career as a resident student ended before my first semester did. My roommate would invite people into our room in the middle of the night, and immediately turn all the lights on. This made my 8 AM classes particularly hard. We also played a passive-aggressive game, where I’d come back from class to find the TV on and no one around. I’d turn the TV off, only to return a few hours later to the same scene. The worst part was the countless sex-iles. I spent several nights in the hallway crying to my mom on the phone. It was like something out of a bad movie. The last straw was when I came back from class to an unlocked door, with all my video equipment inside (I'm a Communications major). This was during a period of time where there had been a few cases of dorm robberies on my floor. I have never been so angry.

 - Allison, Junior

 

"It's Mine"

Last year, my roommate would ask to borrow my clothing all the time, and we're guys. That wasn't cool. Plus, he'd want to bring my iPod to the gym every night, and that is like my one cardinal rule: no one uses Adam's iPod except Adam. He wasn't horrific, but let's just say we went our separate ways.... - Adam, Sophomore

 

"The Ghost"
On my move-in day, I was set up in a triple room.  One of my roommates was already there, setting up his belongings.  He seemed quite distant at first, but I figured it was because he was shy. When I asked him where our other roommate was, he said that he simply stopped by, stocked up the mini-fridge, left a few things on his side of the room, and left.  My other roommate and I didn't get along much, and even though we were a month and a half into our first semester, we didn't exchange more than a few words.  As for my other "ghost roommate," we have not heard from him since the beginning of September when he came into the room to pick up his mail.  His bed is still unmade.  Since then, his mail is piling up and heard that he only lives a few minutes away, so he sleeps in his comfortable bed at home.  As for my other roommate, he ended up moving out across the hall with another friend.  At least I have what seems to be a huge room, for now. - "The Ghost Hunter," Freshman

 

"It's My Party and I'll Storm in when I want to":
I remember living in a triple room during my freshman year.  At first, we all seemed to get along, and I seemed to get closer to one of my other roommates, Claire.*  Justine* was a huge party girl, but at first, she would come back to the dorm at a decent hour. As time went on, she would stumble in during the early morning hours laughing and moving around loudly with her other friends, while me and Claire were asleep because we had morning classes.  Although we spoke to her about the problem, she pretty much ignored us and kept coming home late.  We took the incident to the RA, however, it took a while to reassign Claire* to another room. During that time, Justine and I had trouble falling back asleep when Claire* would barge in, since we were both light sleepers. Although it was unfortunate that we couldn't work out a solution with Claire, I must say that I haven't slept better. - Emily, Sophomore

"Where's The Beef?"
We would share the fridge, but I didn't think we were sharing food too!  My food would be missing, not just left overs but snacks I had in a box under my bed.  My roommate openly admitted to taking it.  I couldn't figure out why he would eat so much.  Until one night someone came looking for him at 3am, and he wasnt there.  They wanted to buy drugs.  Ohhhhhhh he always had the munchies! - Greg, Junior

"No Good Choice"
Which would you like me to talk about, the bulimic one who ate everything in my room one weekend and I made buy me back over $100 worth that she ate?  Or the one that didnt shower and smelled so bad? 
- My mother, AU '80

"Good or Evil?"
When I met my soon to be roommate at orientation the first thing she asked me was what are you for?  I didn't know what she meant so I said I was straght.  No, she said, Harry Potter or Voldermort?  Oh um, I guess Harry Potter, I said.  Oh I like Voldermort, he's evil she responded.  HELP!  - Ana, Sophomore