Residence Life and Housing faces drop in residential students

Residence Life and Housing decided to close ten floors within their campus communities due to a substantial drop in residency, according to Director of Residence Life and Housing Dan Bertsos.

“Last year we opened with about 300 students less than usual,” said Residence Life and Housing Director Dan Bertsos. “Right now it looks like we’re going to have even fewer people than last year.”

These numbers represent a nearly 10% decrease in the number of students living on campus compared to WSU’s average figures, Bertsos said.

Because of the low occupancy, Residence Life and Housing was forced to make staff changes, Bertsos said.

“In the past, we’ve had a senior as the RA in charge of Forest Lane. This year, we decided not to do that. All of that is due to occupancy,” said Bertsos.

Bertsos said there was still space available in many campus apartments as well.

“We have space in our apartments, we have space in our residence halls,” said Bertsos. “The only place we don’t have space right now is The Village.”

Bertsos went on to say that the last two years, freshman enrollment in campus housing dropped to around 50%. However, this year freshman enrollment is closer to the average at around 65% living on campus.

“Part of it is that enrollment is down,” said Bertsos.

A yearly telephone survey included information from students who chose move off-campus as well as those still living on campus.

“It’s usually one of two reasons. It’s ‘I think I can do it cheaper,’ or they’ve got a friend or a couple of friends who need somebody to fill a fourth bed,” said Bertsos. “We’ve had a number of off-campus properties being built in the last couple of years and some of them market very aggressively and in some cases, people have decided that’s a better choice for them.”

Some students who chose to move off-campus agree.

“I definitely think I’m spending less money by not living on campus,” said sophomore Lauren Burgess, a middle childhood education major. “It’s so much cheaper to buy food and cook than to pay for a meal plan.”

Sophomore April Atwell said that she liked living on campus because of the convenience.

“I like it because everything’s here,” Atwell said. “You don’t have to worry about anything like parking.”