News > August 28, 2008

By Kevin Koehler | Web editor

Three of the Faculty Apartments buildings along Allen Easily Drive have a new type of resident this semester – students. It’s the first phase in a plan to convert all but one of the 10 buildings into student housing by August 2009, in order to accommodate the university’s growing enrollment.

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Many students are pleased with the renovations made to the North Campus Apartments in order to convert them from faculty residences to student residences. (Kelly Makepeace/Old Gold & Black)

“I anticipate that North Campus Apartments will become highly desired by upperclassmen,” Donna McGalliard, director of Residence Life and Housing, said in a statement. If the reaction of the first student residents is any indication, she may very well be right about the row of three-story brick buildings, now christened North Campus Apartments.

“It’s amazing,” said senior Samantha Kruse. “There’s so much space. There’s more than I knew what to do with.”

Each of the apartments, renovated over the summer, houses three to four students in two bedrooms, sharing a large living room and a full kitchen. Apartments also include a bathroom, or in some cases, two. Buildings have laundry and lounge space. “The kitchen is a huge amenity,” said senior Sam Smartt. “We can really make our own meals.”

Tucked in the woods behind Scales Fine Arts Center, the street is typically quiet.

“It’s a place to retreat to” Smartt said. “At the same time, if I want to do something on campus, I can just walk to it.”

The Delta Zeta Sorority has moved from Luter Hall into building six.

“It’s not one, but it’s almost like having a sorority house,” Kruse, a DZ sister, said.

Echoing the sentiment of other residents, she added, “It’s on-campus, but you feel off-campus.”

Currently, 21 apartments are open to students, which can house up to 57 people.

Two more buildings, now undergoing renovations, are scheduled to be opened in January 2009, according to statements released by the university.

The remaining buildings are slated to be reopened for students in time for the 2009 fall semester. In the end, a total of 62 apartments will be available for 196 upperclassmen.

One building will stay devoted to faculty, offering 10 two-bedroom apartments for short-term lease.

Unlike Polo Residence Hall, to which students must make a special application to get in, the North Campus Apartments will be assigned through the general housing lottery.

“We actually applied for Polo and didn’t get it. That turned out to be a blessing in disguise,” Smartt said.

The plan to convert the apartments into student housing was the subject of a controversy during the spring semester. Initially in February, the administration announced a plan that would evict all faculty within less than four months.

This drew the ire of the residents, and their sympathizers, who felt the faculty were insulted by not properly consulted nor given enough notice.

Residents began circulating a petition and met with university President Nathan O. Hatch to air their grievances. The administration comprised by adopting the current phased plan. It forced residents in three buildings to leave by the end of the semester and compensating them $3,000, as well offering $2,500 to those who chose to move out by June 30.

Today, most of the faculty apartments are vacant.

Current student residents are not allowed to park behind their apartments buildings at any time, as a consideration to the private homes that abut the complex.