Spring Break
ResLife eliminates housing lottery
Christopher Duray
Issue date: 2/4/09 Section: News
By doubling the occupancy of certain rooms in Hilltop and Charter Oak apartments, ResLife guaranteed on-campus housing for anyone who applied this year, eliminating the need for a housing lottery.
In an e-mail on Monday, ResLife announced that rooms previously used as singles in the two complexes will become doubles this August, and that the two-bedroom doubles will be made to accommodate four students. The department will also simplify its rental plan from 17 rates to five.
Students currently living in these dorms will be allowed to choose to stay and accept a roommate or move to a different single, of which there will still be roughly 700.
The new doubles, which will allot 176 sq. foot per student, will actually be larger than the current two-person dorm rooms, which average to about 77 sq. foot per resident, according to Steven Kremer, the director of ResLife.
Although Kremer was confident that students would not be cramped in the new rooms, one student, Christina Gorbenko, an 8th-semester marketing major who currently lives in a Hilltop single, disagreed.
"I think it would be cramped," she said. "It's nice for one person, but two people would be pushing it."
When told the relative dimensions of the rooms, she still spoke against the change, saying that the only reason anyone would live in Hilltop was its luxurious singles.
"Even if they cut the price in half, I'd still not want to live here [if I had to share the room]," she said.
The converted apartments will be $4,000 cheaper annually, but since the amount of students living on campus will increase, the move will actually result in higher profits for the school in the long term.
The plan will add about 400 new beds, more than compensating for the 213-bed deficit the department faced during last year's housing assignments. It will bring housing availability to 12,371, making the school the fourth-largest residential university in the nation. Michigan State is currently the largest in that regard.
In an e-mail on Monday, ResLife announced that rooms previously used as singles in the two complexes will become doubles this August, and that the two-bedroom doubles will be made to accommodate four students. The department will also simplify its rental plan from 17 rates to five.
Students currently living in these dorms will be allowed to choose to stay and accept a roommate or move to a different single, of which there will still be roughly 700.
The new doubles, which will allot 176 sq. foot per student, will actually be larger than the current two-person dorm rooms, which average to about 77 sq. foot per resident, according to Steven Kremer, the director of ResLife.
Although Kremer was confident that students would not be cramped in the new rooms, one student, Christina Gorbenko, an 8th-semester marketing major who currently lives in a Hilltop single, disagreed.
"I think it would be cramped," she said. "It's nice for one person, but two people would be pushing it."
When told the relative dimensions of the rooms, she still spoke against the change, saying that the only reason anyone would live in Hilltop was its luxurious singles.
"Even if they cut the price in half, I'd still not want to live here [if I had to share the room]," she said.
The converted apartments will be $4,000 cheaper annually, but since the amount of students living on campus will increase, the move will actually result in higher profits for the school in the long term.
The plan will add about 400 new beds, more than compensating for the 213-bed deficit the department faced during last year's housing assignments. It will bring housing availability to 12,371, making the school the fourth-largest residential university in the nation. Michigan State is currently the largest in that regard.
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