Ohio University brought in a record freshman class of about 4,200 students last fall, but this feat was soon replaced with an aggravated call for reorganization from students who were feeling the squeeze as some doubles were converted to triples. The housing crunch has led administrators to plan further ahead for next year's incoming class that is estimated at 4,100 ' only 100 shy of last year's ' even though total enrollment at OU did not really go up despite the record number of freshmen. A new residence hall will be constructed on South Green. This hall will be used to clear out students from one residence hall each year to make renovations on each of the 41 residence halls in turn. This might be good news for future students, but, in reality, the new dorm does not really increase the number of beds on campus because it only allows for renovations. At some point the dorm will help ease housing problems, but not now, even when it is completed.
Also, current residents of many dorms will be waking at the crack of dawn to the sound of construction machinery preparing the site for the new dorm. Ironically, according to an open letter from Provost Kathy Krendl, Hoover Hall ' a 24-hour quiet residence hall ' is the most affected by the noise. Krendl assures, though, that Contractors have been told about exam week
and (associate vice president in facilities and auxiliaries Terry) Conry is trying especially hard to get the contractor on this phase of the operation to be as considerate as possible during that time.
Krendl added that the only solution for now is for affected students to try to adjust their schedules so they will be up and out by 7 a.m.
To be fair, the university can't build a dorm without making noise, and it can't expand without the dorm. But telling affected students to get up at 7 a.m. isn't much of a solution. Unfortunately, and this is implicit in the provost's suggestion, there isn't a real solution for students suffering with construction noise. A reconfiguration of rooms to change singles to doubles and doubles to triples will be implemented in 13 residence halls. This year's housing crunch now will increase to include additional dorms. Also, a perk of being a residence assistant (having a double room to themselves) will now be changed to have RAs in traditional singles.
True, many of these rooms were once smaller doubles and triples back in the middle to end of the last century. But tuition and housing bills weren't as bloated ' inflation included ' 40 years ago as they are now. Students deserve better for the prices they are paying.Upperclassmen and freshmen will be more intermixed in various dorms. Two traditionally upperclass dorms, Gamertsfelder and Sargent Halls, will now house freshmen, and Brown and Pickering will house upperclassmen. This intermixing is proposed to have an additional perk of cutting down on judicial referrals, although, logically, mixing upperclassmen with freshmen will make it easier for the latter to get alcohol in the dorms, which is no doubt a selling point for many students, but not for the administration.
For all of the student's squeezing and administrator's brow furrowing about ways to catch up with housing projects, there should at least be funding incentives from the state for the record freshman class. But this is not the case, because funding is based primarily on enrollment. And OU's enrollment is flat.
Although the freshman class accounted for a 7.5 percent increase from the previous year, total enrollment stayed flat because retention rates were slightly lower, more students graduated than expected and there were fewer graduate students. This means that funding from the state will not increase and could even decrease by as much as 3 percent.
To quote a letter writer from yesterday's Post, college is stressful enough and for what (students) are paying we should at least be ensured a comfortable refuge. We couldn't agree more.
17
Archives
