Friday, September 21, 2012

Residence Life Close to Ending Dorm Overcrowding

The September 20 edition of the Houstonian reports on some of the housing issues seen during the fall semester and how the university aims to add additional rooms:
According to Joellen Tipton, director of Residence Life, about 60 students were put in temporary rooms around campus at the beginning of the semester because of an influx of students who enrolled late and the demolition of King Hall.

Tipton said the demolition of King Hall added to overcrowding. To combat this, she said Residence Life made adjustments to offer several female rooms as male rooms in Sam Houston Village and in other small houses.

Tipton said Residence Life places students in premium-double rooms, which are rooms that housed three beds before, in halls like Belivn-Buchanan Hall and Estill Hall. Additionally, students are placed in Resident Adviser rooms, unused spaces in sorority houses and the University Hotel.

According to the University Master Plan, Raven Village will be used as a model to build additional dorms to accommodate a growing student population. There are currently 3,269 residential beds, and the plan anticipates needing 4,000 beds by 2020.

President Dana Gibson touched on this addition to campus living in her “Sate of the University Address” earlier this month.  Gibson said the university has acquired land to build a new residence hall on the south side of campus across from Raven Village.  “[Planning groups] have been planning and building presentations over the next couple of months to finalize it pretty quickly,” Gibson said.

No comments: