2008 Woodie Awards
Three's a Crowd for Incoming Freshmen
Nina Phillips and James Shafstall
Issue date: 9/30/03 Section: News
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Three college students are picked to live together in a twelve foot by ten foot room.
Is this a description of the new up-and-coming primetime reality television show airing this fall? Guess again. It's the description of the 2003 fall semester housing situation at Lakeland College.
As enrollment reached a record-breaking 835 full-time students this school year, Lakeland faced a problem; there were not enough dorm rooms for all of the students in need of housing. Margaret Teske, Housing and Campus Center Coordinator at Lakeland, began calling students and their families about a week prior to the start of school to inform them that they would be housed three to a rooms that are normally only occupied by two. The numbers grew as students were accepted until the start of the semester.
The solution of housing three students in dorm rooms was received with some reservations. Grosshuesch Hall Director, Jeff Willems said that one family was not happy at first, but when the reasons for the tripling were explained to them and they were assured the situation would be temporary, they were more understanding.
Rodney Carter is in his first year as a Resident Assistant in Grosshuesch Hall, and was nervous when he first heard they were going to be tripling up students in rooms, but as it turned out, he said, students worked together very well. Neither Carter nor Willems had any unusual complaints or situations as a result of three students in one room.
Two alternative solutions to the overcrowding problem were considered. One was to house students in an off-campus hotel in Elkhart Lake. The drawback of that plan was the inconvenience of having students live so far off campus. Another was to have students room with Resident Assistants, and, in fact, two RAs voluntarily took in three roommates. But the chosen plan was to put three students per room, and at the beginning of the semester, nine dorm rooms held three students each.
Director of Residence Life, Jim Bajczyk said, "We took the stance that we weren't going to make any money off the tripling, that we were just going to take the same income from a double room no matter if there were two people or there were three people." This resulted in a financial break for students in tripled-up rooms, who saved $24.22 per week because boarding fees for double rooms were split three ways instead of just two. This break was even enough incentive to get some students to volunteer to be tripled up
Is this a description of the new up-and-coming primetime reality television show airing this fall? Guess again. It's the description of the 2003 fall semester housing situation at Lakeland College.
As enrollment reached a record-breaking 835 full-time students this school year, Lakeland faced a problem; there were not enough dorm rooms for all of the students in need of housing. Margaret Teske, Housing and Campus Center Coordinator at Lakeland, began calling students and their families about a week prior to the start of school to inform them that they would be housed three to a rooms that are normally only occupied by two. The numbers grew as students were accepted until the start of the semester.
The solution of housing three students in dorm rooms was received with some reservations. Grosshuesch Hall Director, Jeff Willems said that one family was not happy at first, but when the reasons for the tripling were explained to them and they were assured the situation would be temporary, they were more understanding.
Rodney Carter is in his first year as a Resident Assistant in Grosshuesch Hall, and was nervous when he first heard they were going to be tripling up students in rooms, but as it turned out, he said, students worked together very well. Neither Carter nor Willems had any unusual complaints or situations as a result of three students in one room.
Two alternative solutions to the overcrowding problem were considered. One was to house students in an off-campus hotel in Elkhart Lake. The drawback of that plan was the inconvenience of having students live so far off campus. Another was to have students room with Resident Assistants, and, in fact, two RAs voluntarily took in three roommates. But the chosen plan was to put three students per room, and at the beginning of the semester, nine dorm rooms held three students each.
Director of Residence Life, Jim Bajczyk said, "We took the stance that we weren't going to make any money off the tripling, that we were just going to take the same income from a double room no matter if there were two people or there were three people." This resulted in a financial break for students in tripled-up rooms, who saved $24.22 per week because boarding fees for double rooms were split three ways instead of just two. This break was even enough incentive to get some students to volunteer to be tripled up