August 29, 1999
Schools say no room at the dorms
By Cathy Willoughby
Staff Writer
College students are arriving in Tiffin this weekend, and many of them will find themselves in either temporary, or more crowded, housing.
Both Tiffin University and Heidelberg College are facing what is a good problem. There are too many students for available residence hall space.
Heidelberg is experiencing some of it's problems due to the ongoing renovation of Kreig Hall. Director of Residence Life Sara Remy said that a lot of positive factors are affecting their housing "crunch.'' "The numbers of incoming students is rising and retention of students is better,'' Remy explained. "These are positive, and initially more incoming students are requesting to live on campus, as well as having a building offline for renovation, combine to cause a temporary housing problem.''
Added to this is the fact that more men are registered as incoming freshmen this year, necessitating the rearranging of some of the residences.
"All of these combined at once to create a very temporary situation,'' Remy added. "They will be moving into standard spots as places become available. We have redesignated and consolidated women's spaces and given more to men.''
Nine university-owned houses, formerly used for faculty or left vacant, have been designated for those students dislocated by the Kreig renovation. "Some of them were ready to go, '' Remy said of the homes. "But we had to put quads in the living rooms, doors on some of the rooms, to make them into multi-person dwellings. After consultation with the fire department, we had to add room locks and smoke detectors, to change it from a family home to student housing.''
Walter Zielinski, Vice President for Student Affairs at Tiffin University, said that approximately 300 freshmen are due to arrive this weekend, about a 20 percent increase over last year's numbers.
"We have a requirement at Tiffin University that all freshmen and sophomores must live on campus,'' Zielinski said. "And juniors and seniors are welcome to live there, too. This year we have so many students scheduled for housing that we have backed off on the sophomore requirement so we could accommodate as many students as we can.''
He said that even with relaxed housing rules, triples have had to be made out of the larger double rooms, and doubles out of some singles. And TU purchased an apartment building off Benner St. to accommodate about 20 students and a few will be staying at the Tiffin Motel.
Zielinski said that the students in the motel rooms will be moved in to university housing as soon as rooms open up. "There are always some 'no shows' and then we would empty the motel and detriple the triples,'' he said.
Due to a steady projected increase in incoming students, Zielinski said that Tiffin University has plans to build another residence hall next year to accommodate them.