Imagine. It’s your senior year of high school. You walk into an apartment-style dorm at The University of Alabama, and you think, “This is amazing! I can have my own room, no community bathroom and complete privacy!” Now, flash forward to the end of freshman year. You enjoyed all that privacy, but what you weren’t expecting was to never see your roommates, close yourself up for hours in your single room and have to clean your own bathroom to boot.

Expansion here at the University has reached an all-time high, and with that comes an expansion of the dorms. However, oftentimes the apartment-style dorms that the University heralds as a selling point are not as great as they appear. At the University, we want to wow potential students with our luxurious accommodations, beating out all the competitors. But while we are succeeding in attracting students, no one ever really talks about what life is like in these new dorms once we get here.

For one, a significant amount of upperclassmen and transfer students will not be receiving on-campus housing this year. A result of the increase in students, the University has even bought half of an apartment complex, East Edge apartments, to rent out to students. And this is still not enough. Rose Towers was demolished to make the way for the new Presidential Village, but another suite-style dorm is being built on campus. There was no question that eventually Rose Towers was going to be torn down, but the current construction raises new, more important issues. Why, when we already don’t have enough housing and continue to increase in our numbers, are we building dorms that require students to live alone allowing fewer students to live in each?

Aside from the logistical dilemma, there are several issues with the apartment-style housing itself. Apartment-style housing leads to a lack of community. Having a roommate is an important part of going to college, an opportunity suite-style dorms do not offer. Meanwhile, individual rooms encourage isolation.

I lived in apartment-style housing my freshman year, and it did not foster community. The central areas that we boast about to prospective students are for the most part not used. I hardly ever saw my roommates, and when I did it was a quick “hello” before one of us went into our room and closed the door. Not only that, but having a suite meant that we rarely, if ever, saw other people who lived on our hall. There is no bumping into people on your way to the bathroom when you have your own, nor is there a need to escape to someone else’s room when your roommate is getting annoying – you can just lock yourself in your own bedroom.

Freshmen who live without roommates don’t learn how to live and cooperate with another person. They may sign a roommate contract at the beginning of the year, but the chances of having to deal with roommate conflict are slim. Instead, they are left on their own to start off their college experience, not having to truly share a living space.

I understand that while these fantasy dorms are a great selling point to potential students, I don’t understand why the University is slowly headed towards having potentially too much of a good thing. Options for dorm living can be nice, yes, and some have had a fantastic experience in suite-style dorms, but it’s also okay to have the “typical” college experience. Plenty of people have had college roommates, and they turned out just fine.

Mary Sellers Shaw is a junior majoring in communication studies and civic engagement. Her column runs biweekly on Tuesday.