RHA, CDS anticipate growth
Organizations are working to manage the large number of students.
Published Nov. 13, 2009
With student enrollment near record highs and residence halls running so full MU must lease extended campus housing, the Residence Halls Association and Campus Dining Services are changing the ways they operate to keep up with the masses.
RHA created a proposal aimed at changing the way residence hall returning students can sign up for rooms next year.
"The changes will reflect the bigger freshmen class," RHA Speaker of Congress Blake Lawrence said. Lawrence said there has been difficulty with the increase in students.
"It would be easier if the university stopped sending increasing amounts of freshmen," Lawrence said.
RHA's proposal divides students returning to residence halls into three groups based on each student's contributions to the residence hall.
The first group will have the opportunity to choose rooms first, and then the second and so on. Each individual group will also be subdivided by seniority.
After the rooms allocated for upperclassmen have been reserved, freshmen can sign up. Residential Life is reserving enough rooms for all freshmen, so though upperclassmen get to choose first, there will be enough rooms for all students.
Some students thought ulterior motives were in play with the proposal.
"It seems kind of weird that RHA would get the first preference when they're the ones doing it," freshman Katie Schmidt said. "It seems like there's a conflict of interest there."
Galena second floor President Emily Hake said students might be contributing to the community in other ways than through student government.
"Not a lot of people have time to be involved in the student government," Hake said.
In addition to housing issues, students have also complained about the over-capacity of dining halls.
Rollins dining hall is scheduled to close at the end of the fall semester, and this will likely pose capacity problems, Lawrence said.
"The lines are ridiculous as it is," Lawrence said. "I'm a little puzzled as to where a lot of the higher ups at the university think that people will be eating next semester."
Rollins Manager Nancy Monteer said problems will come, and CDS has been trying to eliminate any issues.
"We are strategizing and working very hard to make the transition as easy as possible for students because we know it's going to be hard," Monteer said.
All CDS managers on the eastern side of campus, the side that will be most affected by Rollins closing, have been meeting regularly and put out media campaigns to educate students on alternate dining options.
"That's our fear, is that everyone's going to pile into Plaza (900)," Monteer said. "So we're making sure that everyone knows about Eva J's. Eva J's will be open seven days a week, pretty much continuous service."
Expanding the hours of operation in dining halls is a big part of the plan.
"Emporium will open an hour earlier," Monteer said. "I know they're going to have pizza by the slice as well, so that will be a draw to get people to use Emporium, so they don't have to use a chair when getting lunch."
After spring semester, problems should lessen, Monteer said.
"I think maybe some of the systems we've worked out for the crunch time will be in place and can maybe help us to run more efficiently," Monteer said.
