Student Housing Becoming Issue

"The Woods [Maplewood, Elmwood, Oakwood] still look like they did in the '70s. We've been able to maintain them pretty well, but you can only maintain buildings for so long before you have to renovate them," commented Ken L. Nafziger, vice-president of Student Life, when asked about the state of residence halls.

From Town Hall meetings with Loren Swartzendruber, EMU president, to Common Grounds dialogues, the issue of housing often comes to the forefront in discussion of budget and EMU development needs. The three Woods buildings are all starting to age, with Oakwood being in particular need of attention. Not only do the Woods buildings lack air conditioning, but the heating in Oakwood and the other buildings also needs renovation, according to Ken.

Possibly the most problematic of the dorm buildings is Roselawn. "It was built in the '70s when the focus was on saving energy. It's made of cement blocks, which gives it very sturdy construction but makes it extremely hard to renovate," commented Ken, "Ron Pipper, vice-president of finance, did a study of the cost to renovate Roselawn a few years ago. It turns out the cost of renovation is greater than the cost of tearing down Roselawn and building a new building." One of the main problems with Roselawn is that the layout is not very conducive to community. Most of the rooms are too small for doubles, and the windows are very narrow.

Dorm buildings are not the only residence halls in need of modification; the amount of suites and apartments owned by EMU is also a problem. Currently the only suites building is Hillside, which has a total of 25 suites available for juniors and seniors. Applicants for Hillside can either fill out a form of intent, available for seniors, people over 21, or those who have lived in Hillside before, or fill out a point-based application if they do not meet the criteria for forms of intent. When deciding how to allocate the suites, forms of intent are awarded suites before traditional applicants are even considered.

This system significantly favors seniors and older students over younger juniors, and may leave 20-year-old juniors without many options. For next year, of the 24 available suites, 17 were awarded to groups with forms of intent, leaving only 7 available suites for the 16 junior groups who applied. Student Life realizes there is an interest in more suites and apartments, and are planning to build additional buildings as time and finances allow.

There are several steps currently being implemented or in future plans to address the housing problem. One solution is the addition of another intentional community house similar to the Martin House, known as the Redmond House. It houses eight people and will be used for student housing for the first time next year. "It's currently occupied by seminary grad students who have an intentional community based on a spiritual foundation, and we hope to keep that focus next year."

On March 23rd and 24th the Faith and Student Life Committee of the Board of Trustees is meeting. The meeting will include a walkthrough of the current residence halls to determine what needs to be worked on.