In light of next year’s housing application being active, VWU residents offer insight on their current housing and Director of Residence Life David Stuebing shares information on the housing process.
Some residence halls are more desirable than others in the eyes of students. Brock Village (V3), especially the apartments, appeal to upperclassmen wishing for privacy and amenities like kitchen access. Stuebing said, “We’ve got between 80 and 90 available beds [in the apartments], and usually over 200 people that express interest.”
“We’ve got between
80 and 90 available beds [in
the apartments], and usually
over 200 people that express
interest.”
David Stuebing
Stuebing said that Res Life looks at the applications starting from those with the most credits, “Our system does kind of lean itself towards seniority to an extent.”
To gain student perspective, a distributed form inquired about a series of factors within residence halls such as location, noise levels, space and cost, yielding a range of perspectives.
In the form, Teagle Hall resident Toren Greenfield-Tuthill praised the spaciousness of his single-room, saying it is “the best sized dorm [he’s] lived in.”
However, Greenfield-Tuthill voiced concerns about how noise travels, “The doors aren’t even slightly sound proof, so if there is anyone in the living room, they might as well be in your room.”
Johnston Hall resident Riley Cheuvront rated cost as “very unreasonable.” Cheuvront wrote in the form, “For a barely functioning stove older than I am, a ratty leaky fridge, and one toilet for seven people, it’s pretty expensive.”
Regarding how the university prepares housing over the summer, Stuebing said that facilities management staff is responsible.
“They typically come up with a master schedule to try to work through each of the buildings, but they also have to work around summer conferences,” Stuebing said.
According to Stuebing, a benefit of these is creating “an additional revenue stream that helps to fund the university so that our buildings don’t just sit empty for several months.” He added, “That additional revenue helps to keep tuition from going up.”
Stuebing pointed out that a disadvantage of this is that “facility staff has to clean and prepare the buildings prior to the conferences coming in, but then they have to go back in afterward.”
As a new development, “This summer, summer student housing has been moved from Honors Village to the apartments so that there’s an opportunity for facilities to do more in-depth repair work in Honors that was harder to do in past summers,” Stuebing said.
Going forward, Stuebing said they plan on alternating summer housing between these so one does not continuously receive disproportionate cleaning time.
By Lily Reslink
lbreslink@vwu.edu
