Student Senate Hosts Town Council Meeting: Residence Life Rocks the House

Dave Campbell and Robert Moses address students’ questions and concerns. Photo Credit / Jamie Reese
Dave Campbell and Robert Moses address students’ questions and concerns. Photo Credit / Jamie Reese
Dave Campbell and Robert Moses address students’ questions and concerns.
Photo Credit / Jamie Reese

By Jamie Reese

Editor-in-Chief

On Wednesday, Student Senate conducted the first town hall meeting. This meeting allowed students to interact with representatives from Residence Life and Housing and Parking Services.

Residence Life and Housing manages services including rooming assignment procedures, general residence hall maintenance, and relevant staffing.

Robert Moses, Director of Residence Life and Housing, said, “Some other things that happen in our office … We maintain an off-campus housing list … We have quite an extensive list of landlords willing to rent to students.”

The list can be found online or in hard copy at their office located at Hemlock Suites. It includes amenities offered with each location, as well as other specific information for each location.

Moses continued, “We also have a guide for students who are renting off-campus (including) what they should look for in a lease and a room inventory form you can fill out with a landlord when you move in and move out.”

On top of these services, they also oversee three scholarships. One of these scholarships, the Third Floor Shawnee Hall Alumni Endowed Scholarship, is available to any on-campus resident active in an extracurricular activity, so long as he or she has completed at least 60 credits, has at least a 2.5 GPA, and shows financial need.

Beyond scholarships, other financial opportunities exist related to Residence Life and Housing.

Moses said, “If you’re interested in employment in our department, we employ about 140 students.” This includes 55 resident adviser positions and about 92 desk worker positions. These positions are offered online, and are only open for a few weeks throughout the year.

Next, Dave Campbell, Associate Director of Residence Life and Housing, spoke about room selection.

He said, “Housing applications are live now. The process for making an application is very short … It’s as simple as going onto your portal and finding the application link for housing, reading the contract terms, and clicking ‘I agree.’”

This process will be open for the next few weeks, and will allow students who completed it to participate in room selection for the fall semester. Room selections start on March 31.

After Campbell spoke, students were offered the opportunity to ask questions directed at the representatives from Residence Life and Housing.

Student Senate also posed anonymous questions through Twitter.

Some of these questions pertained to visitation hours.

One of the reasons the residence halls have visitation hours is to prevent non-residents from more or less moving in. Moses also posed the concern for roommate discourtesy. Despite these concerns, there are plans to expand to 24/7 visitation hours.

Moses said, “That’s something the Resident Hall Association is working on… That has to come from the students.”

Students also asked questions concerning triple rooming. Due to an anticipated increase in enrollment, some incoming freshmen may be required to take up temporary triples. RAs are also being encouraged, but not yet required, to volunteer to have roommates.

Despite the enhanced enrollment, there will still be opportunities for students to obtain single rooms in the suites.

Residence Life and Housing is currently planning to construct a new suite mirroring Hemlock Suites. This project is estimated to take about 18 months, and may start as soon as the end of spring semester.

For more information, please contact Residence Life and Housing. Their contact is online. The next Town Hall Meeting is scheduled for April 1 and will host dining services. Don’t forget to look bellow for the parking segment of the town hall meeting.

Email Jamie at:

jreese6@live.esu.edu