2008 Woodie Awards
Housing shortage ousts sophomores from Marian Hall
Deanna Gillen
Issue date: 10/26/06 Section: News
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The Department of Housing initially sought out the help of local hotels and struck gold at the Residence Inn. Marist was able to guarantee occupancy in over 20 rooms in the inn in exchange for a lower rate. Now residing at the Inn are both transfers and those students who were not happy with their housing placement.
"I don't really think it's Housing's fault," said Sarah Gunner, a senior who opted to go live at the Residence Inn when faced with disappointing housing at the end of the year. "They are trying really hard to get all the students on campus and living where they need to be, but Marist is expanding so quickly that the school just doesn't have the resources to accommodate everyone right now."
With the Residence Inn solution underway, Housing then had to decide what to do with the overflow of sophomores. The Student Government Association (SGA) was consulted to represent student's views regarding the situation, according to Student Body President Maryellen Conway.
"Housing came to us to get our opinion on the situation," said Conway. "They wanted to see what the students really wanted."
The core of the situation seemed to be a classic problem of supply and demand. With this year's freshman class reaching record numbers, housing was put in quite a predicament having to find residences for all of them. After placing 90 freshman in Marian, which had previously been primarily sophomore housing, the issue became a matter of deciding where to house the displaced sophomores. According to Director of Housing Sarah English, the decision was made at that point to break down some of the traditionally senior housing and make it available to underclassmen.
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