CD^narch CDessenqer Eli O Fayetteville, NC Vol. XXXVII, No. Monday, September 20,1999 Record Numbers Lead To Housing Shortages By Whitney Larrimore Staff Writer This October, Methodist College will break ground on a new 68-bed apartment complex behind the Riddle Center. This is the first of three apartment com plexes that will be built to help ease over crowding problems. According to William Walker, Direc tor of Residence Life, the number of stu dents staying on campus this fall is 755. The normal number of resident students runs around 700 in the fall and 600 in the spring. “We can house 722 comfortably if Resident Advisors have private rooms.” said Walker. A man is living in overflow housing in the downstairs portion of Institutional Computing, and five women are staying in the apartment m Garber. Assistant Foot ball Coaches were moved out of that apartment and into Cumberland Trace to make room for the women. Other students are living with Resi dent Advisors, who typically have pri vate rooms. Freshmen are being housed I in the Honors Residence Flail with honors occupants. There have even been two cases of female students in triple occupancies. Why are there so many students? Ac- cordmg to Walker, Methodist is experienc ing its largest upperclassmen return ever. There is also a record number of female students living on campus. “The student population of Method ist is growing,” said Walker. “We intend to have the total student population grow, but we are concentrating on increasing the number of residential students, specifically upperclassmen.” That is why the new apartment com plexes are being built. Each apartment will consist of a kitchen, living room and four private bed rooms. Once the three new residence halls are complete, around 200 students will make their homes behind the Riddle Center, near the current location of the Challenge Course. If need be, the Challenge Course will be relocated. The new residence halls are meant to attract upperclassmen and raise the num ber of them living on campus. Once these residence halls are built, upperclassmen can move out of residence halls like Weaver or West Hall, and make more room for un derclassmen, increasing the total capac ity for resident students. “The first of the three residence halls should be complete next fall,” said Walker. After the first residence hall is complete, work should begin on the others. Until then, students will get time to know their new roommates. A Resident Advisor and Residence Hall Association president, Jeiuiifer Packard, junior, was ac customed to living alone. “It’s different (having a roommate) because last year when I was a RA (Resident Advisor) I pushed my two single beds together and had a king size. My room was a sanctuary for me.” Now Packard has a roommate, fresh man Tonia Campbell. Packard was sur prised how much Campbell reminded her of herself when she was a freshman. “I feel like a mom.” Packard said. “You revisit your past and see how much you’ve changed. Tonia stays on the phone just like I used to.” Campbell is happy she is rooming with Packard. “I knew I was going to have a roommate, but I didn’t know it would be an RA. This is my first year, and I didn’t know what to expect. Jennifer gave me study tips and helped show me around cam pus.” “As students withdraw or decide to move off campus, students that are in tem porary housing will take their places.” Walker said. “If our apartment complex is built, we won’t have this (overcrowd ing) problem next year, but eventually we may face it again.” Emergency Call Boxes Are "A Good Safety Measure' By Cindy S. Bridges Editor What’s new on campus this year? The annex to the library, the renovations to the Lion’s Den, improvements to the campus bookstore, new faces amongst both the pro fessors and the students, and three emer gency call boxes are all new additions. The installation of the call boxes is per haps the least noticed addition to the Meth odist College campus. They were made possible by a cooperative effort between the Police and Public Safety Department, Student Government Association, and the Residence Hall Association. Without the involvement of all three of these groups, call boxes at Methodist College would not have become a reality. These boxes were installed in July of this year, just prior to student orientation. The idea for the call boxes evolved when students in the RHA expressed con cern that they did not have the means to contact the Police and Public Safety De partment when on campus at night. One member of RHA stated that she went to the Science Building one night, found it locked, and had to make a return trip to her dorm room to call for assistance. She stated that she felt uncomfortable making three trips in the dark when it was not nec essary. The call boxes would prevent these types of occurrences from happening. The call boxes are located in various positions around the campus. One is on the north side of the Math and Science building, one is on the north side of the Student Union, and one is on the north side of Clark Hall. The goal of the three departments working on this project is to install three call boxes every year for the next five years. “What I would like to see in the near Continued on page 3 In an emergency, don 7 hestitate to press the button! Photo by Cindy Bridges

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