An unforeseen amount of first-year students applying to live on campus resulted in a major change for the Towers Residential Suites: freshmen occupants.
“It was a shock for everyone, because this is traditionally an upperclass hall,” Samantha Bennett, community director for the Towers Residential Suites, said. “I think everyone is making an adjustment to having freshmen residents in the halls.”
Since the Towers opened in 2005, it has been home to sophomores, juniors, seniors, graduate professional students, and international students — but never freshmen.
Audra Kovalchuk, associate director of Housing and Residential Life for Wayne State, said a huge amount of freshman applied for housing in the last three weeks of August.
The solution? Fill the unused space at the Towers.
“Their second floor was going to be used as a conference floor,” Kovalchuk said, “but now it’s filled with freshmen.”
Although there are freshman living on the third floor as well, the Towers had to make more room by allowing freshmen in the 11th floor, which used to be reserved for graduate students.
“We did inform the upperclass students of [the freshmen residents], and just asked them to be role models and possibly serve as mentors for our first-year residents,” Bennett said.
Briana Palmer, sophomore and seventh floor resident of the Towers, said her experience at the building is different than what she was expecting.
“I understand that there is no room, but I don’t think it’s fair that they get to stay here, and we didn’t when we were freshmen,” she said.
Most of the graduate students and those over 21 are staying on the 10th floor. Suites with underage occupants are considered dry rooms, while suites where all the residents are 21 or over are wet rooms. Residents can have alcohol in their specific suite, but not in common areas.
One reason Palmer said she doesn’t like living with the freshmen is because many of them ride up and down elevators, run up and down stairs, and bang on residents’ doors.
“They’re freshmen,” she said. “They’re going to act like freshmen.”
Bennett has not received any negative feedback through e-mail or any other form of communication, but she is pretty sure there are people in the building who are not happy about the situation.
Wayne State has witnessed an increase in the number of freshmen living on campus over the past few years, and Bennett said she believes that number will continue to grow.
“Speaking for the Office of Housing and Residential Life, I think we are open to the option of having freshmen if we find ourselves in this wonderful and unique situation again, if the need is there,” Bennett said.
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