 "Photo: Courtesy of Amanda Cain")
The push to decrease the amount of Wayne State commuters has led to a dilemma — an unprecedented amount of freshmen applied for housing for the 2009 fall term.
This year, about 1,000 freshmen applied for housing and 32 percent received housing assignments compared to 29 percent last year.
Tim Michael, director of Housing and Residential Life, said that before this year freshmen residential halls were at an estimated 70 percent capacity. To reach maximum capacity last year, the freshmen residence halls, Atchison and Ghafari, utilized discounts and special pricing. This fall term marks the first time that first-year housing was filled without any deals.
Currently, more than 50 percent of the 1,635 students assigned to Atchison, Ghafari and the Towers Residential Suites are freshmen. Atchison and Ghafari are brimming with more than 820 students, while the Towers are usually reserved for upperclassmen.
“We like the problem of being full,” Associate Director for Housing Audra Kovulchuk said.
Kovalchuk estimated that there are about 20-to-30 students still on the waiting list with an expectation of 40-to-50 more by the winter term.
Due to the housing overflow, some freshmen were assigned to the Towers, including the eleventh floor, which was previously reserved for graduate students.
Promotion for housing was initially paired with the admissions process. Following admissions, special mail was sent to transfer students and newly admitted freshmen. Kovalchuk emphasized campus success as one of the main points to advertising housing.
“Our goal is to make sure that the people that are living on campus are more successful than their commuter peers,” she said.
Living on campus provides students with access to the Undergraduate Library and its 24-hour computer lab, as well as an alternative for those who do not have the means to commute.
“They can’t afford to pay for the transportation, but they might be able to get the loan to live on campus,” she said.
Wayne State is unlike most campuses where freshmen and upperclassmen are usually placed in the same dorms. The immediate question is whether to keep a separation between freshmen and upperclassmen.
The amount of space allowed for overflowing freshmen in the Towers is debatable, and housing coordinator Julie Wojciechowski said that student placements will be re-evaluated.
Michael said the housing department will be looking toward the hall councils in each dorm for feedback about the housing changes.
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