The Class of 2012 has just about hit its saturation point. With a record total of 1,480 students, Quinnipiac found itself putting together a residence puzzle to give all of the new students their space.
“The university guarantees housing to all students who deposit prior to May 1,” residential life director Cindy Porter said. “And once again this year, Quinnipiac had a record number of applicants (15,000) for the approximately 1,500 seats in the freshman class.”
The university has never had a single class this large, and along with that statistic came a series of overbookings in the freshmen residence halls.
For the first few weeks, some solutions were put in place that would group more students together. One alternative was to use the quiet study lounges in all four freshmen dorms to house the extra students. These lounges were originally developed for any student who wanted to get away from his or her room for a short time and finish up homework or study. However, with the influx of freshmen students this year, there was no choice but to convert the lounges into rooms.
Freshman Tim Brown is living in Commons with five other roommates, but he said he enjoyed the setup of the individual spots in his own room.
“You wouldn’t think at first that we have privacy, but we actually do,” Brown said. “There’s a lot of room in here.”
The fact that there is no study lounge around does not bother Brown either.
“It’s not a problem because everyone goes to the library anyway,” he said.
Amanda Blasco, another freshman in Commons, was happy when she found out she would move in a six-person room.
“I was just hoping I would get along with everybody in the room,” she said.
Blasco also said she particularly enjoys that she has plenty of space for her belongings.
Freshmen in the Ledges dormitory have six-to-eight person rooms in place of study lounges as well.
Ledges resident Clayton Sauberan said, “It’s like having three rooms in one. Everyone is so far apart that you don’t have to worry about distractions.”
He said all his roommates except for one came off the waitlist, a sign that there were more students admitted than originally planned. As of now, Porter stated that students would only be moved from the study lounges into conventional rooms if there were spots available.
The other alternative was to pair Residence Assistants with incoming students in the freshmen dorms. Most of these pairings were expected to only last the first two weeks of school, and changed around as other spots opened up across campus. The very few that are still together with RA’s still do not know their futures just yet as spots remain expected to open in the next few weeks.
So far there have been mixed feelings about the change of scenery these freshmen may have to go through. Krista Langley is a freshman living in Dana with an RA, but is expecting to be moved out in the upcoming weeks.
“I want to be settled down without having to move all over the place,” Langley said.
Sarah Norman, an Irma occupant, expressed her feelings of adapting to live with an RA for the time being.
“At first I thought it was weird, but I’m friends with my RA. I know a lot of people around the dorm so it’s been easy so far.”