Chapel Hill Not Allowing Students Into Dorms If They Haven't Paid Room Deposit, Jan. 9, 1923

Landlord Warren Evicts Students Who Do Not Pay. . . General Moving Day After Holidays—Much Dissatisfaction With the Bursar’s Action

Many students rooming in dormitories last quarter returned to the Hill to find that they had been turned out of their rooms on account of their failure to make the $5 deposit required of them by Treasurer J.A. Warren before leaving for the Christmas holidays. Their rights to the room occupied the fall quarter, they found, had been sold to other parties for the remainder of the college year.

Much indignation has been aroused among the students on account of this action of the University bursar because it was understood at the beginning of the year that the amount paid at that time was for four months, which time has not yet expired, and some students, confident of their right to the room and reasoning on the basis that possession is nine-tenths of the law, refused to give up the room to the newcomers who held receipts as evidence of their right to the room for the remainder of the college year.

Other instances of similar nature resulted in free-for-all word battles in the treasurer’s office, but the majority of these cases were smoothed over by the good sportsmanship of the newcomers who in many cases agreed to take the same rooms they occupied last quarter if these were still available. But the real trouble came in when the rooms which they had occupied last quarter had also been turned over to some one else. Matters were greatly complicated, and many have not been settled yet.

From the front page of The Tar Heel, Chapel Hill, N.C., January 9, 1923