PARLIAMENT VOTES FOR SAME CANDIDATE FOUR TIMES In a humorous evening, Parliament voted for Deputy Speaker, Derrick Trombley several times
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Week of FEBRUARY 9, 2015 | Vol: 88 | Issue: #18
The Anchor Newspaper
ReDy, Se, ReRgNiE!
Residence Life plans to reconfigure housing setup Elisha kay aldrich News Editor @anchorNews
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s if the renovations to Gaige and Craig Lee were not enough, resident students might be seeing a change in housing configurations in the near future. According to the Director of Residence Life and Housing, Teresa Brown, the idea comes from the fact that upperclassmen have been incredibly vocal about wanting single rooms. “So, we’ve been trying to pay attention to our numbers, and what students are requesting and what our configuration is,” she said. “Over the last couple years, we’ve noticed that returning students really want single rooms.” Brown stated that the new configuration would place all freshmen resident students in a double room, and that most students come to college expecting to have a roommate. “Freshmen need an adjustment period and it’s nice to have a roommate at that time,” she said.
With this new setup, Sweet, Willard and the double rooms in New Hall would all be reserved specifically for freshmen. The “super single” rooms in Willard would be converted back to double rooms. Upperclassmen would then be able to reserve single rooms in Thorpe, Weber and the apartment style dorms in New Hall. There is also a possibility of Browne Hall becoming coed, rather than remaining allfemale as it is now. Brown also mentioned that she spoke with several student groups on campus, including Resident Assistants, RSA and the Hall Council for each building. She stated that each group responded with a general approval of the reconfiguration. The only questionable subject for them was turning Browne into a mixed gender living scenario. “Some women felt that it would be fine to have men live in the buildings because they didn’t feel it would change how they lived in Browne. Some women felt that they would prefer it stay all female for their own personal reasons relative to comfort level. So we heard both sides and will take it all in as we move forward,” she said.
According to Brown, the design of Browne Hall works well for a coed living space, because the entryway to each suite is protected. She also stated that because Rhode Island College has more female students than male students overall, if Browne were to allow male residents, there may only be a few suites with men in them. The issue of making Browne Hall coed comes after the reported sexual assault in Sweet last fall. When asked about the subject, Brown stated that she does not believe the new room configuration would have an impact on the continued safety of resident students, but that it would continue to be a top priority. “We have put in place several different initiatives relative to safety in the halls in the past few years,” Brown said. “For example, we rekeyed all hallway doors and issued keys to the residents in Sweet for an added security level and we have installed keycard access to all suites in the remaining halls for an added security level.” A second issue arises with the pricing of the different residence halls. Because New Hall is the most expensive of the residence halls,
freshmen who cannot room in any other hall may be forced to pay more to live in New Hall. But, Brown stated that freshmen are given such information well in advance. “The prices are presented to them before they choose so they would be able to consider that in their preference selection during the application process. The pricing structure would stay the same as it is now,” she said. Overall, Brown’s goal is to make on campus living more enticing to new students, and to bring back those who have lived on campus before. She stated that because RIC’s residence halls were built in the 60s, they have more single rooms than most campuses. With the new configuration, she believes that more students would get to live the way they want to, and would also be allowed to stay in the same room from year to year. She added that if this new configuration proves enjoyable for resident students, that there is a greater chance of a new residence hall being built. “Until that’s completed, we continue to do smaller renovations to repair things and put new furniture in,” Browne stated.