2008 Woodie Awards
Triple Threat
Let's avoid tripling rooms in the future
Justin Lyman
Issue date: 9/30/03 Section: Opinions
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Another year brings another record-breaking enrollment for Lakeland College. So what does this mean for the everyday student? If you live off campus it means only that some of your classes may be larger. However, if you happen to live on campus it means not only larger classes, but also, if you are a guy living in the dorms, you might have found yourself tripled up in the rooms of Muehlmeier and Grosshuesch. The rooms, designed for only two people and their equipment, must house three students. However, despite the work done so far to triple the rooms to make the overcrowding bearable, this may not be a permanent solution. Now, while this is a solution to the problem, there are other ways that the college could have solved this problem.
One solution is setting a reasonable distance, perhaps 20 miles, and if you were within that distance housing on campus could not be guaranteed. This would solve part of the problem. Another solution would be to build another dorm hall. This has been a rumor that has been floating around since last year.
Now one thing that would make the living arrangements a little more comfortable for most people would be to take the female residents out of Muehlmeier and to triple up Krueger. Before people start pelting me with rotten fruits and vegetables hear me out. The rooms in Krueger have about 48sq. ft. more room. Now I've heard the argument before that women bring along more stuff than the guys do and that's why they have larger rooms. I don't mind them having larger rooms, why not just use the fact that the rooms could more easily accommodate a third person than the rooms of Muehlmeier and Grosshuesch. Now I know that some guys wouldn't like this solution either, because they like the co-ed feeling of Muehlmeier Hall, but it would be better than having a third guy in your room wouldn't it?
Why not have some sort of housing freeze, where we would keep on accepting more students, but they would not be guaranteed housing. This goes along with the first idea, but puts housing on a more first come first serve basis. Yes it would end up driving some of the prospective students away, but only at first, maybe the first 2-3 years until a new dorm could be finished.
This is a problem that is not going to easily go away for the faculty and staff of Lakeland since they want to increase the enrollment, but haven't taken the steps to house the population desired. If this policy of tripling up the smaller rooms on campus continues the college may not need to worry about obtaining new students, but keeping the returning students.
One solution is setting a reasonable distance, perhaps 20 miles, and if you were within that distance housing on campus could not be guaranteed. This would solve part of the problem. Another solution would be to build another dorm hall. This has been a rumor that has been floating around since last year.
Now one thing that would make the living arrangements a little more comfortable for most people would be to take the female residents out of Muehlmeier and to triple up Krueger. Before people start pelting me with rotten fruits and vegetables hear me out. The rooms in Krueger have about 48sq. ft. more room. Now I've heard the argument before that women bring along more stuff than the guys do and that's why they have larger rooms. I don't mind them having larger rooms, why not just use the fact that the rooms could more easily accommodate a third person than the rooms of Muehlmeier and Grosshuesch. Now I know that some guys wouldn't like this solution either, because they like the co-ed feeling of Muehlmeier Hall, but it would be better than having a third guy in your room wouldn't it?
Why not have some sort of housing freeze, where we would keep on accepting more students, but they would not be guaranteed housing. This goes along with the first idea, but puts housing on a more first come first serve basis. Yes it would end up driving some of the prospective students away, but only at first, maybe the first 2-3 years until a new dorm could be finished.
This is a problem that is not going to easily go away for the faculty and staff of Lakeland since they want to increase the enrollment, but haven't taken the steps to house the population desired. If this policy of tripling up the smaller rooms on campus continues the college may not need to worry about obtaining new students, but keeping the returning students.