Res Life make housing changes before room lottery

Student housing areas will look different at the start of next semester with the elimination of Pierce Village, the addition of sophomore suites in Granite Hall as well as the exclusion of Saw Mills apartments for undergraduate students.

The first change in Residential housing for next semester is the addition of suite style dorm rooms in Granite Hall. The suites are going to be located in the east and west wings of the building and will only be available to sophomores. All of the current double rooms will be converted into single rooms, one of the triple rooms will be changed into a double room and the other triple room will become lounge for students, according to Bethany Browne, First Year Area and Granite Hall Experience Director.

The idea for the suites came about on a number of different levels, one being a response to the student satisfactory survey Residential Life sent to first year and sophomore students. "The final decisions to move forward with the suites was made by senior staff and they finalized that we would go in this direction and utilize suit housing," said Browne.

Director of Residential Life Ken Ervin said, "We're trying to figure out and stream light more housing options for our students.We really wanted to maximize our housing options [and] provide students the opportunity to live in an environment that they would want to live in."

The lounge area in the suites will be equipped with a small dinning table, chairs, some living area furniture, a television and DVD player, as well as the possibility for a fridge and microwave unit. There will be no sink or running water in the lounge, according to Browne.

"One of the things that we think is successful is if students are provided a space to congregate outside of their bedroom [this] enhances their residential experience," said Ervin.

Living in one of the new suites roughly cost 300 dollars more per a semester than traditional sophomore housing and students living in the suites will have their own keys to the east and west wing doors to keep out students who do not belong in that area housing, according to Ervin.

The second change in residential housing comes with the removal of Pierce Village, otherwise known as the trailers. The trailers were originally a temporary solution to a housing problem and were only suppose to be in use for 3-5 years, though they have been in use for the past 11 years, according to Ervin.

Several aspects factor into the elimination of Pierce Village, one being that it is getting harder to replace and install new utilities in the trailers because of its age. The units are at a point where we're having a difficult time replacing items in there because sometimes they don't make the same exact [model]," said Ervin.

However, the removal of the housing may be disappointing to some, many students enjoyed the experience they had in the trailers and benefited from the sense of privacy the trailers gave them, according to Ervin. "There are a lot of stories that come out where people really enjoy their experience being in Pierce Village," said Ervin. "It's not that they don't like them, its that yes maybe they would want to live in a Northwoods or Mountain View but once they get to Pierce Village and see that there's a sense of independence where you don't have people above and bellow you connected on either side, you just walk in three [steps] and you're home."

One final change in housing is at the start of next semester the Saw Mills apartments will no long be available to undergraduate students in efforts to accommodate the one year MBA program that Franklin Pierce is starting; the apartments will be of use to those in the MBA program to live in.

Ervin feels that the changes are going to improve the overall atmosphere of a student's residential living on campus. Ervin said, "People understand the balance of their academic and residential experience they have to be happy, they have to be confident, they have to feel like there's a sense of respect, so that will make them enjoy their social and their academic experience that much more."