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Wednesday, August 24, 1977
University Daily Kansan
Triple in a pinch
Residence hall crunch relieved this year
By DAVID ALFORD
Staff Writer
The University is not expecting as many problems this year with residence hall crowding as it had last year, according to Fred McElhene, associate dean of men.
Last fall about 25 University of Kansas students found themselves living in residence hall utility rooms and many shared a room with two other persons.
This year three rooms in each residence
hall have been set aside for triple occupancy and those rooms will house three persons only after all of the residence halls have been filled to capacity, McEhelen said.
McElenne, whose office receives and process fails hall contracts, exceeds legal fallback statutes.
"last year, as we tried to predict the demand for residence hall rooms, all indications were that we would have a banner year," he said. "Everyone thought that
enrollment would rise. It did, but we encountered a situation we've never faced before."
FOREIGN STUDENTS RESERVE their rooms late because they have problems getting money out of their countries early to pay the deposit required to reserve a room, McKenna said. For the first time she had a minute rush from foreign students did not take place.
Photo by DONALD WALLER
esprit decor
Some students choose to elaborately decorate their residence hall rooms with such items as paneling, carpeting, plants and posters, Kevin Leonard, Kansas City, Kan., junior, studies in his
room in Joseph R. Pearson Hall. The room was decorated by Chip Gable, Kansas City, Kan., junior, and Jason Ota, Denver junior, last year.
Innovative furnishings can make any room a home-on little money
No curtains, no bookkeeper, no desk and no money are common problems. KU students with unfurnished apartments are with each year.
This semester, such students must provide their humble dwellings with some kind of modest furnishings that will make their rooms comfortable.
more invitable.
There are numerous ways a student with limited funds can build home furniture. A stop at Watson Library to check magazines that provide instructions for homemade furniture could be helpful to the provices.
novice.
In addition, the Art Library in Watson has many books on furniture construction. Subjects range from early American to contemporary building designs.
Through the years, imaginative KU students have developed their own methods for constructing inexpensive furniture. A favorite design for shelves utilizes cinder boxes and pressed wood.
design that can be added to and easily taken apart can be made by stacking the blocks with the wood between. The unit can be
decorated with a can of paint and some burlap.
Desks and coffee tables can be constructed if the blocks and larger, more expensive pieces of wood are used. Even old doors may be used as tabletops.
as tabletopps.
Another idea for furniture employs crates. After finding orange, apple or other types of wooden crates, only a creative mind is needed to put them to use.
Possibilities range from small tables, to stools and storage shelves. Generally, the more crates one has the greater number of combinations that can be made from them. Paint easily transforms the combination into a colorful piece of furniture.
storms the competition here from a sheet of cork wood and covered with cloth also help. They make a convenient place to hang calendars, concert tickets and other essential items for KU students.
concerned with this kind of care.
Regardless of his ability, almost any student can make his own furniture. With just a little money, some minor research and a lot of enthusiasm, those who want a comfortable place to live can have it.
Green plants can brighten dreary rooms
One good way to spice up a dreary room is to decorate it with plants. With a little common plant sense and a lot of loving care, plants will thrive year round in almost any room.
A house plant can cost from $9 cents to $10, depending on where it's purchased and what type it is. Two popular, hardy types of house plants are the pothos and philodendron is easily rooted in water to
make new plants and the cactus, well, the cactus is almost indestructable. Give it a flower pot and it will survive for weeks all by itself.
The two cardinal sinks for raising house plants are over-watering and not providing adequate sunlight. The year-round way to water plants is to fill the pot with water until about 10 per cent of it runs out the bottom of the pot. Then the plant shouldn't be watered.
again until it gets dry. A plant that needs more sunlight will lose its crispness and won't grow. Then people start overwatering it and its leaves begin to drop off.
r plant rumor has it that coffee grounds, weak tea and stale beer are good "food" for plants. However, these foods are of dubious value and could do the plant more harm than good by altering the condition of the soil.
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McEllenie said there were several factors that limited his office's ability to accurately predict the demand for residence ballroom.
Sometimes students, especially foreign students, are accepted into several universities, McElinheen said. Even after they've been accepted and made a deposit here, many of these students end up going somewhere else to school.
"WHEN SOMEONE WHO has reserved a room doesn't check in of during enrollment week, we can't just write them off and give the room to someone else," McElien said. "Some people come in to purchase to ensure they can pick up one more vaviecheck before school starts."
"By the time the foreign students arrived, all that we had to offer them were rooms that might be tripled up," he said. "A lot of people did not believe us when we told them that the tripling would be temporary. So they went elsewhere."
McElenie said his office waited until the semester was about two weeks old and then started contacting those people who had reserved rooms and not checked into them.
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yeah.
"This year we are receiving signed seal hull contracts earlier than in the past, but we are at the mercy of the mailman and people who walk into the office with a signed contract in their hand," he said. "When people tell me that the State's and Missouri's halls are closed they get their contracts into us earlier."
MEELHENIE SAID TWO factors had increased the demand for residence hall space. Enrollment has increased along with the percentage of students living in residence halls who want a single occupancy room, he said.
"It's a double-barreled increase," he said. "More people want to live in residence halls and more people are willing to pay extra for a single room."
Single occupancy rooms are limited to 30 per cent of the total number of rooms in each hall. McElhenie said this rule was aimed at reducing housing Board to prevent a housing shortage.
"When a student lives in a single occupancy room he occupies two places instead of one," he said. "If we gave singles to our children in the game we'd run out of space early in the game."
PREDICTIONS INDICATE THAT enrollment will decline at KU in the future, McEllenney said. Consequently, no conference residence halls is planned for the near future.
"We don't want to overbuild," he said.
"The universities in Carratoo and Wisconsin need to take new residence buildings."
The University Housing Management Office is responsible for the maintenance of residence halls and their grounds, McElhene said. They are also responsible for the upkeep and administration of Stouffer Place, the university-owned married student housing facilities, and scholarship halls.
The Dean of Men and the Dean of Women are in charge of hiring the resident assistants that live in each residence hall, he said. Every residence hall is also staffed by a professional resident director.
Students who want information about residence hall living should contact the Housing Management Office, 206 Macdonald St., Strong, 208 Strong, or the Dean of Men, 228 Strong.
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