Royal Purple

Issue date: 10/17/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Brad McAllister

The Office of Residence Life has reduced the number of students living in lounges from nearly 200 to about 150 students.

Since the beginning of the semester students have been moved to regular rooms as they become available. Progress is being made shifting students from the lounges to regular dorms, Residence Life Director Jeff Janz said.

"We don't ask them to move far away," Janz said.

Plenty of housing still remains available throughout the school year. However, Janz said overcrowding will continue until the completion of new residence halls.

The lounges are a projected fixture through next school year and will be used similarly to this year. The longer the students stay in the lounges the more accustomed they become to living in them, Janz said.

New construction on campus prompted renovations of residence halls, and in the process UW-Whitewater came up short for rooms to put people. Residence Life converted dormitory lounges into three-person living areas.

Next year Residence Life will make fewer single dorm rooms available to offset the projected increased in sophomore population.

Sophomore's who met the eligibility criteria were encouraged to move off campus to accommodate for fewer on-campus housing options. The eligibility for sophomores has not changed, Janz said.

The lounges are a temporary solution until new residence halls become available in 2010. Plans for the new halls are set, and the state budget approval remains the only delay. Despite the set plans, progress has not been made on the new halls due to the budget proposal, said Frank Bartlett, assistant director of Residence Life.

Within the next few weeks Bartlett hopes lounges will convert back to study areas for students as they become vacant. Most buildings have large basements with common areas to replace the lounges.

A challenge faced by Resident Life is finding storage space for the un-used lounge furniture. Some of the lounges had to be converted into storage for the furniture, Janz said.

The other challenge is increased activity in the larger lounge rooms. Since more people can fit in them it could lead to larger parties or groups of people hanging out in the rooms.

"There's always people in here," sophomore Dan Bice said.

However there have been no major problems with parties in the lounges, Janz said.

Bice lives in a lounge in Bigelow Hall., Bice and his roommate, freshman Abram Figures, said they enjoy the size of the room and don't miss the study area.

By 2010, lounge housing will no longer be needed, however the new residence halls will include four person suites with a common area, Janz said. The lounge experiences have been a good experience in promoting the new suites.

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