IU expects 10,500 students to move in to dorms this week

The march of the minivans begins Wednesday.

The staff of the Residential Programs and Services office has been planning move-in day for months.

Pat Connor, executive director of RPS, said the biggest problem IU runs into every year is traffic.

In addition to the regular traffic of Bloomington residents, thousands of packed minivans and SUVs cramped with students and their parents overcrowd the city’s roads.

To help keep traffic problems at a minimum, the IU Police Department will have 75 officers on duty to monitor traffic and parking as well as a bike patrol.

Sgt. Rebecca Schmuhl of IUPD said there will be officers at major intersections off-campus as well as ones around the dorms. She said the biggest traffic problem is on 10th Street around Wright Quad, Ashton Center and Teter Quad.

“Traffic always gets bottlenecked because of less parking and parents circling the dorms,” Schmuhl said.

RPS anticipated the issues that would arise around 10th Street and has taken steps to improve the process.

In response to the construction around Ashton Center that is expected to cause more traffic and parking problems than previous years, Connor said RPS has enlisted the help of IU employees who work within the units of the Physical Plant.

RPS also tries to prepare parents and students as much as possible, Connor said, and the RPS move-in guide can be found at www.rps.indiana.edu.

Connor said RPS departments have been working all summer to prepare dorms.

The janitorial staff has been extremely busy trying to get dorms cleaned and ready, he
said.

Recently, about 7,000 Boy Scouts lived on IU’s campus for a convention that left the maintenance and janitorial staff three weeks to prepare the dorms for students, Connor said.

Other departments of RPS have prepared year-round for move-in week. The housing assignments office has been planning a year in advance, said Sara Ivey Lucas, assistant director for the office.

They expect about 10,500 students moving in to the dorms this week, 250 of whom will be living in lounges temporarily.

“We are one of the busy offices during the summer,” Ivey Lucas said.

The assignments office has been working on the 2010-11 housing application, which will be posted on the first day of classes, as well as planning on how to get people out of lounges as soon as possible, Ivey Lucas said.

“Our goal is to keep move-in day a positive experience,” Connor said.