Residential Life renews contract with Tiger Diggs

So far, 384 spaces have been reserved at Campus View.

By Krissy Tripp

Published April 28, 2009

Tiger Diggs will remain an option for next year's students, but Mizzou Quads will not.

Residential Life sent proposals to 10-15 apartment complexes, and received only three responses. Administrators at the UM system level evaluated the responses and decided Campus View met the needs of Residential Life at the best price.

Campus View was unable to comment.

Even with the best package, Residential Life still found it necessary to raise rates. Director of Residential Life Frankie Minor said the department lost money this year because they weren't prepared for all the expenses such as extra transportation and next year's goal is to break even.

"In terms of our overall budget, it's not that significant, but any money I lose is student money, so I take it very seriously," Minor said.

Residential Life reserved 384 spaces, clustered in five buildings. Minor said they haven't yet decided if they want to reserve the full 400 spaces Campus View would allow them to reserve.

"This year it's a little bit more dispersed at Campus View, but we stipulated the ability to cluster students together," Minor said.

The remaining 16 spaces would be outside of the cluster.

There isn't a shortage of spaces yet, but Residential Life anticipates a larger freshman class for fall 2009. Minor also said less returning students chose to stay on campus this year compared to last year.

"The big wild card is the economy," Minor said. "The general economic conditions affects people's ability to go to college and choose to come here."

Minor said another reason Residential Life isn't sure about the extra 16 spaces outside of the main clusters is their desire to keep a sense of community in extended campus. This year, because Tiger Diggs was a more dispersed community, both the sense of community and communication were more difficult to achieve.

"Some of the staff would grab students from apartments to introduce them to others in their community," Minor said.

Area Coordinator Beth Lauchstaedt said three new Freshman Interest Groups will add to the community feeling. Last year, the contracts were decided upon so late that classes were too full to create FIGs at extended campus.

"Much like our other FIGs help incoming students make the transition to college by creating peer reference groups and providing an integrated learning experience, we anticipate the FIGs at extended campus will do the same," Lauchstaedt said.

Minor said the FIGs will be based on journalism and communication, psychology and general interest. Residential Life staff hasn't been assigned to the FIGs yet, but Minor said three professors with co-facilitation experience will be paired with them.

"We thought putting some experienced co-facilitators out there would be helpful," Minor said.

Three FIGs will be living at Tiger Diggs, but freshman weren't able to utilize Residents' Online Access to Rooms until 4 p.m. Monday.

Residential Life hopes an experienced staff and community clusters will smooth problems that occurred this year.

"In the past year we've had the opportunity to work with problems and attempt to resolve them as they have been identified," Lauchstaedt said.

Specifically, Lauchstaedt said they will be trying to make a more visible office for student support and information. Tiger Diggs Hall Coordinator Joe Kelley said he's looking to establish better governments, fix the transportation issues and create better communication with students.

Minor said they plan to address Internet reliability and transportation issues, two common complaints from students at Tiger Diggs.

"There's a lot of unique problems that main campus wouldn't face," Kelley said. "It's been good a challenge for me."