Rose Towers will be spending its last school year as an all-freshmen residence hall.
Rose Towers is known for its 13 floors, its living-learning communities for international students and all that a several decades old residence hall usually entails.
However, starting in fall 2011, all residents currently living in Rose Towers will be forced to look elsewhere on and off campus for a place to live. Students became aware of this change on Jan. 4, when an e-mail from housing was sent to all the current residents of Rose Towers.
“Because of continued high demand for housing from incoming freshmen and the loss of Byrd, New and Parker-Adams Halls, Rose Towers has been designated a freshman-only residence hall for next fall,” an e-mail from Housing and Residential Communities stated. “This means that current residents will not be able to return to Rose Towers for fall 2011.”
According to HRC, the choices available for those living in Rose are the Highlands, Bryce Lawn, Burke East or West, Parham, Paty or the Mallet Assembly. The International Living-Learning Community will be moved to Burke East.
However, availability in newer dorms such as Lakeside, Riverside and Ridgecrest are not an option for those students who haven’t previously lived there. This has sparked curiosity in many Rose Towers students as to why they haven’t been given the same priority to stay where they currently are the following year.
“All along my plan was to stay at Rose until they kick me out,” said Ja’Miere Marina, a freshman studying pre-med. “If they’re getting the priority of the best dorms, I can’t even see how they’d give someone priority in one of the worst dorms on campus. I mean, granted, nobody would want to live there by choice, it’s still better then being out on your own, in the cold.”
Alicia Browne, the associate director for assignments, information and communication with HRC, said that the University, through the Freshman Residency Program, guarantees freshmen housing. Upperclassmen are provided housing choices not available to freshman, such as Bryce Lawn and the Bluff.
“Students beyond their freshman year are better equipped to move off campus, and we provide many resources for that choice as well,” Browne said.
Many students, such as Marina, don’t agree.
“Personally, I wouldn’t be prepared to leave campus,” Marina said. “A lot of things in life, especially things that make yourself better as far as libraries and physical activity like the Rec Center, are close to you when you live on campus. Imagine having to go through that transition earlier than you’re ready.”
At a re-contracting meeting held in Rose Towers, representatives from HRC tried to calm some of the growing confusion and frustration among students who feel they now have nowhere to live.
“We aren’t trying to turn you out to the wolves,” said Tonya Nail, assignment coordinator for housing. “We are trying to help you make good decisions.”
Julie Elmore, assistant director of off-campus and greek housing, was also present at the meeting.
“Don’t be rushed into signing a lease,” Elmore said. “But you need to go ahead and find something if you know you won’t have transportation and need to live in the fringe areas of the campus.”
Nail and Elmore both emphasized for students to take the first step and re-contract by Feb. 1. Students who do not make the cut will be waitlisted; however students who receive housing scholarships will never be waitlisted. Students who will be participating in a living-learning community, such as Blount, Friedman, and the International Living-Learning Community are also protected from being waitlisted. Current honors residents are included in this category.
“If students must be waitlisted, HRC will begin with graduate students, then rising seniors, then rising juniors, and finally, rising sophomores,” said an e-mail from HRC.
With this uncertainty of whether or not they will make the cut for on-campus housing, and faced with few and to some eyes unfavorable option, many students are thinking ahead. Such is the case with Andre Fedd, a freshman at Rose Towers who, despite not having a car or any mode of transportation, is already looking into his off-campus housing options.
“I don’t want to stay in an old place where you have to use community bathrooms,” Fedd said. “I don’t like the fact that Rose Towers is becoming an all freshmen dorm, and the limitations on the dorms are not right.”
Freshman Laurel Wilson was planning on living in Rose Towers again because she enjoys the feel of diversity and family that Rose Towers provides.
“I actually like Rose Towers,” said Wilson, who is majoring in international studies. “I like the stove and the oven, and part of the reason I wanted to live in Rose is because I wanted to be around the international students”
