ISU using dens as housing for incoming students

[CyFan61]

Here's the story.

The ISU DOR decided to accept more contracts than it has space for... and is putting students who signed up at the tail end of registration for on-campus housing in dens in residence halls.

For those who live on campus, I wouldn't be too happy. The den was a great place to hang out with a large number of people, watch an ISU away game on somebody's TV with some pizzas and WestCyde Wings, and just chill. You can still do that in somebody's room, but they're much smaller.

Thoughts?

 

[IcSyU]

So they filled up Towers? I'm not sure I'm believing it.

If they turned in their contracts late, instead of punishing the responsible students, they should've said you need to find an apartment. There are plenty.

 

[cstrunk]

Dumb! How many students are they going to cram into each den?

 

[00clone]

It stinks, but it's not uncommon. It's been a long while, but I recall this happening when I was in the dorms. It's usually just a few days/weeks until rooms open up. Either people never show up to school, decide to live off campus, Greek system, or plain drop out of school. As long as it doesn't go too long, it sucks, but deal-with-able.

Hey, guess I shoulda read the article: "Iowa State has experienced a shortage of permanent on-campus housing in the past. It occurred commonly in the 1990s." It also is a little unclear, but apparently IS short term. Most of the article seems like they're remodeling dens for permanent rooms, but 2nd last line: "Nearly every residence hall will convert dens into temporary housing arrangements for students this fall. "

 

[Cyhart]

This happened when I was in the dorms too.

 

[CYdTracked]

Here's the story.

The ISU DOR decided to accept more contracts than it has space for... and is putting students who signed up at the tail end of registration for on-campus housing in dens in residence halls.

For those who live on campus, I wouldn't be too happy. The den was a great place to hang out with a large number of people, watch an ISU away game on somebody's TV with some pizzas and WestCyde Wings, and just chill. You can still do that in somebody's room, but they're much smaller.

Thoughts?

This used to be a pretty common thing when I was there (98-02) It's only temporary, what happens is they wait till they get some vacancies to fill (no-shows, people who drop out after the first few weeks, people who join a greek house and move out, etc.) and the dens are usually cleared out within the first month. Bottom line is usually the ones in the dens are the ones that got their housing applications in late but I never knew of someone not eventually being placed into a room fairly quickly when they had to use the dens.

 

[CyFan61]

So they filled up Towers? I'm not sure I'm believing it.

If they turned in their contracts late, instead of punishing the responsible students, they should've said you need to find an apartment. There are plenty.

It's not a "may happen" any more, it's a definitely happening. Just asked a friend in Friley to check his Housemates list on AccessPlus, and he has two people living in his house's den.

 

[ISUAgronomist]

I believe the last time this happened was 2000. 2 kids per den.

 

[CyFan61]

I am glad to hear from those of you who have experienced this that's it's very temporary. I would otherwise agree with IcSyU that the DOR should have said tough ***ties and not gave them a spot on campus. As long as they're empty in a month or so, I guess that's workable.

 

[IcSyU]

2 people in the dens in Larch would be a HUGE room. The one whole wall being windows would suck but the room would be gigantic.

 

[CYdTracked]

So they filled up Towers? I'm not sure I'm believing it.

If they turned in their contracts late, instead of punishing the responsible students, they should've said you need to find an apartment. There are plenty.

Towers are single as double rooms now aren't they? Again, when I went to ISU there were still 4 Towers and all the rooms on the floor except the 2 on the ends were 2 person rooms. They don't have the capacity out there now that they used to a long time ago but they also built those new buildings near Friley since then too.

 

[CycloneErik]

They did this back in 1992, with the idea being that spaces were going to open up quickly.

As far as I remember, nobody stayed in the dens very long.

 

[pyrocyz]

Not a big deal. It happened in 2003 when I came. Kids drop out or not show up and those who don't have a room yet move pretty quickly.

 

[Senolcyc]

Not uncommon. They will gradually move people into rooms as others flake out and drop out and otherwise fall by the wayside. Within a few weeks, everyone will have a room.

Same thing happened at Adams College --- it seemed to me that the jocks got preferential treatment in that case. I can't prove it, though.

 

[ripvdub]

Happened in towers in 97'. They were out of there in a few weeks.

 

[yCy]

This is nothing new. They were doing it in the 70's. It usually doesn't take more than a couple of weeks to get people placed in regular dorm rooms, but it's a bad situation for those that have to wait.

 

[mred]

I have nothing new to add but I'll reiterate what everyone else said -- it was common when I was there too, and it was usually resolved within a couple weeks or so.

 

[jdoggivjc]

This used to be a pretty common thing when I was there (98-02) It's only temporary, what happens is they wait till they get some vacancies to fill (no-shows, people who drop out after the first few weeks, people who join a greek house and move out, etc.) and the dens are usually cleared out within the first month. Bottom line is usually the ones in the dens are the ones that got their housing applications in late but I never knew of someone not eventually being placed into a room fairly quickly when they had to use the dens.

Yeah, I was up there the same time as you, and it happened all the time - the difference being instead of ******** about it we just sucked it up. Everyone knew it would only take a week or two for people to start getting homesick and dropping out, so the "inconvenience" lasted really only that long.

Besides - who really ever uses the house den? In the three different houses in three different buildings I lived in (Friley, Helser, and Roberts), outside of the house meeting and a poker night every so often - rarely. Even a decade ago we all had our own TVs, and all of them were better than anything found in the house den.

 

[CloneFan319]

I move in to ISU saturday and our den on 5th floor Maple Hall is open, thankfully.

 

[Cytom5]

good thing its not me. but i am living at the grove and they said they may or may not be done by the start of school. really rethinking my decision to live there...fml