230 new students without rooms

Most freshmen are adjusting to sharing a dorm room. Two hundred thirty students are adjusting to sharing a lounge.

In Read, four men have adopted their floor’s common space as home.

Nathan Price-Presslaff, a sophomore transfer student and Bloomington native, said he signed up late on purpose to get the dorm that he wanted. He said he likes Read.
 
Even though he’s only about a mile from his house, Price-Presslaff said he likes the lounge better than his own bedroom. He also said coming from a large family prepared him for living in the lounge.

“I’m used to noise and light,” Price-Presslaff said. “It’s all good.”

IU doesn’t have enough space to house all on-campus students, and about 220 students were originally placed in overflow housing, Residential Programs and Services reported.

Sara Ivey Lucas, assistant director for assignments for RPS, said the problem is a combination of two issues: late registrants and not enough space. In addition, IU announced its second-highest enrollment figures in the University’s history for this fall.

“As we continue to add more space, the folks in administration continue to add more people,” Ivey Lucas said.

For the University, it means there is a supersized freshman class required to live on campus, Ivey Lucas said. It also shows a higher retention of returning students.

There are also competing interests on campus, she said. Her staff was prepared for the higher enrollment numbers. They also knew they couldn’t leave certain dorms with worsening infrastructure, such as Briscoe, which didn’t have air conditioning until recently.

Ivey Lucas said RPS has tried to lessened the number of students in supplemental housing by reducing the number of double rooms allowed for single room space.

They also recently built Union Street Center, the first new housing building constructed at IU in more than 40 years. Plans are in the works to add a new apartment complex off of Third Street as well as a new residential hall in the southeast neighborhood.

Data from the past two school years show that RPS efforts are working: The number of students living in overflow housing has decreased from the 2009-10 school year to the 2011-12 school year.

“We are housing more students than we ever have, at least in the last 15 years,” Ivey Lucas said.

Those living in lounges are paying 80 percent of their housing contracts compared to those living in a dorm room, Ivey Lucas said.

Many students are concerned about privacy, but most complaints are voiced by parents, she said.

The breakdown of students living in lounges is about 75 percent male and 25 percent female. Research based on students’ past experiences showed RPS that males tend to do better in that situation than females, Ivey Lucas said.

“Chances are, we’ll continue to have men in supplemental housing for the full fall semester,” she said.

Price-Presslaff said he and the others were told they would be in the lounge until October.

His roommate, freshman Caleb Leake, said he doesn’t want to have to move and meet new people because he likes who he lives with.

“I don’t really have any complaints,” said freshman Keagan Sorg, another roommate.
Kyle Smith, a freshman living with three other males in Forest, said he was told he’d be in the lounge all year, and he hopes he stays.

“The lounge is a good place,” said his roommate, freshman David Shan. “It’s spacious.”