Spring Break
Still enough on-campus housing despite record number of incoming students
Joe Luther
Issue date: 9/3/08 Section: News
Despite the rise in new students UW-Whitewater will not have to look outside the residence halls to house students this fall. Dropouts and cancellations have lowered the number of rooms needed for on-campus housing.
"At this point, we aren't looking outside of the residence halls for alternate venues for this fall anymore," Interim Director of Residence Life Frank Bartlett said.
There are currently 3,811 students residing in the university's residence halls. The maximum number of students, considering all housing options on-campus is 3,845 beds.
Residence Life has had to resort to using floor lounges once again and is also putting students into multi-purpose rooms in the basements of the residence halls. 211 students are currently living in lounge rooms, and 38 are living in the converted basement rooms.
"We actually love it down here," freshman Marcus Smith said, "We've got a lot of space, a lot of us don't want to move out. A lot of us are freshman and it was cool just getting thrown in like this."
Smith shares his room with six other students. Residence Life is trying to put no more than six people in each converted basement room, but this number could increase if space is no longer available.
"We've set [the multi-purpose basement] rooms up for a max of eight, we're trying to draw the line at six," Bartlett said. "We want to accommodate everyone, but we want to do the best for the students. It's getting to be a real challenge."
The university had prepared a plan to use the Baymont Inn & Suites to house overflow students from the residence halls. Since the number of students did not exceed the on-campus housing capacity the plan was not needed. Potentially up to 60 students were planned to be housed at the Baymont Inn.
"The actual cost per week was higher at the Baymont Inn than the weekly cost for residing in the residence halls so no credit had been discussed," Bartlett said.
Residence Life had discussed the possibility of contracting a shuttle service through the City of Whitewater for transportation from the Baymont Inn & Suites.
Residence Life may revisit the plan if the number of incoming students continues to rise. This fall UW-Whitewater will have the largest freshman class in more than 20 years at 2,149 students.
"At this point, we aren't looking outside of the residence halls for alternate venues for this fall anymore," Interim Director of Residence Life Frank Bartlett said.
There are currently 3,811 students residing in the university's residence halls. The maximum number of students, considering all housing options on-campus is 3,845 beds.
Residence Life has had to resort to using floor lounges once again and is also putting students into multi-purpose rooms in the basements of the residence halls. 211 students are currently living in lounge rooms, and 38 are living in the converted basement rooms.
"We actually love it down here," freshman Marcus Smith said, "We've got a lot of space, a lot of us don't want to move out. A lot of us are freshman and it was cool just getting thrown in like this."
Smith shares his room with six other students. Residence Life is trying to put no more than six people in each converted basement room, but this number could increase if space is no longer available.
"We've set [the multi-purpose basement] rooms up for a max of eight, we're trying to draw the line at six," Bartlett said. "We want to accommodate everyone, but we want to do the best for the students. It's getting to be a real challenge."
The university had prepared a plan to use the Baymont Inn & Suites to house overflow students from the residence halls. Since the number of students did not exceed the on-campus housing capacity the plan was not needed. Potentially up to 60 students were planned to be housed at the Baymont Inn.
"The actual cost per week was higher at the Baymont Inn than the weekly cost for residing in the residence halls so no credit had been discussed," Bartlett said.
Residence Life had discussed the possibility of contracting a shuttle service through the City of Whitewater for transportation from the Baymont Inn & Suites.
Residence Life may revisit the plan if the number of incoming students continues to rise. This fall UW-Whitewater will have the largest freshman class in more than 20 years at 2,149 students.
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