As ISU welcomes its largest freshman class, some students say the campus feels crowded

This story was jointly reported by WGLT and The Videttea student-run media outlet at Illinois State University.

As Illinois State University celebrates its largest incoming class of freshmen, some students say they feel a disconnect between the positive messages and their experiences on a busy campus.

The annual enrollment report after the 10th day of classes showed that 4,285 freshmen came to ISU this fall. Total registrations also increased by 2.7% to 21,546. In an era of projected declines in enrollment, that’s good news for the institution. But as ISU welcomed these students to campus, it also had to figure out how to accommodate the influx of freshmen and sophomores who would have to live on campus. ISU’s incoming class was 20% larger this year than it was a decade ago, but no student housing has been built on campus in that time.

That’s partly due to budget constraints: Original plans for a new on-campus residence hall, first reported by WGLT in 2019, have since been scrapped, in part due to “significant increases in construction costs,” ISU President Aondover Tarhule said. Spokesman Chris Coplan said ISU is “considering creative options for various partnerships to address the need for additional campus housing.”

But in the meantime, many students this year are living in rooms that are not intended for as many residents as in the dormitories. Double rooms have been made into triple rooms, triple rooms have been made into quads, and in some cases lounge areas are used to accommodate students.

“Personally, I feel like it can get a little tight sometimes because we would technically have to live in a triple that (ISU) turned into a quad and four girls in a living space that is so small that it can get difficult and which can cause problems. problems sometimes,” said first-year dietetics major Keira Corey.

Anthony Tomayo, a freshman Spanish education major, said he feels fortunate compared to some: Although he had agreed to have one roommate in a double room at Watterson Towers this year, an additional roommate was added to the mix over the summer to accommodate the meet housing needs.

“In mid-June, the university told everyone, ‘Hey, we’re fully booked. Everyone’s in triples now.’ And so we had to talk about what we wanted to do, whether we wanted to move buildings, or whether we wanted to find a third guy in a day. And we did that, and it worked very well for us. But I understand that a lot of people aren’t so lucky as we have,” he said, adding that the room he occupies, originally built for two people, is “already very cramped.”

“We are doing well, but it is already busy,” he said.

Tomayo says he also feels lucky to have an actual room: In three residence halls on campus – Hewett, Manchester and Watterson Towers – lounges were converted into makeshift dorms to accommodate the influx of students.

Coplan said the situation went better than ISU expected: Lounges were initially set up for a maximum of six students, but “ultimately we did not need to fill these spaces for that capacity and the lounges were reduced to four-person lounges before the space opened .” residential houses.”

At the time of the statement, the lounges in Hewett and Manchester had been emptied, but they were still in Watterson Towers.

But that offers little comfort to students who find their living space unnecessarily cramped. Tomayo said the influx of people at Watterson Towers has caused daily tasks to take longer than normal.

“It’s so hard to find a bathroom that no one uses. It’s hard to get a ride to yourself. There’s always a line for the package room – constantly. I’ve had to stand for 10 minutes (in a dining hall) because there are literally so many people there,” said Tomayo “It was a struggle to just get some alone time, or some alone time, just because there are so many people.”

Corey echoed the frustration.

“You don’t really have much time for yourself. So I feel like if you’re struggling with… things, you need your own space, which is just not available at Watterson,” she said.

Tomayo said he would have liked to see room and board rates adjusted to reflect the additional roommates students have, as a matter of fairness, but ISU’s housing policy is to charge based on size of the occupied room, not how people occupy it.

ISU policy also requires students who are “in their first two years of high school” to live on campus, either in the residence halls or in the Cardinal Court apartments. Coplan said requests for exemptions from this policy “were about the same this year as the year before, which we believe again indicates that our students want to remain on campus.”

Angeline Manalo, a freshman film and digital media student, said she feels disconnected from the university’s positive messaging about high enrollment numbers.

“I feel like they shouldn’t celebrate yet,” she said. “It’s good that they’re accepting more people, but before they decide to accept more people, they need to make sure they have enough housing to house everyone.”