Featured Photo from Kailee Shores
Story by Nicodemus Gabel
Next fall, MTSU Housing Operations plans to adjust the dorm assignments in Lyon, Sims and Beasley.
Instead of creating new freshman priority dorms, MTSU housing hopes to strategically hold additional dorm rooms and halls for freshman to be closer to social networking opportunities, said to Alonzo Bouldin Jr., the assistant director of housing operations at MTSU.
Corlew, Cummings and Smith already enact this idea, but it may be expanded to Lyon, Sims and Beasley.
Before the start of the fall semester in 2023, MTSU filled all dorm rooms and had to adjust campus housing. They plan to change the plans for room selections for MTSU students in the coming 2024-2025 school year to serve the needs of both returning and freshman students.
“We will be doing measured releasing of rooms this year, to hopefully get students into better programming areas on campus,” Bouldin said. “When we open it up to returning students first, they spread all across campus, so it’s hard when giving it to new students, to give them the programming spaces that they need.”
According to Bouldin, the first year on campus is important for freshmen to develop social groups and integrate into campus life. Freshmen benefit greatly from programs on campus that get them involved, and they need more help understanding how to use the resources provided by MTSU than returning or transfer students
MTSU housing wants to ensure that returning students are not turned away from housing, improve the experience and room availability for first year students, and enhance programming opportunities for all students.
As the priority self-assignment progresses for returning students, housing gradually releases these held spaces to make them available to the returning students. When they saw that Womack and Scarlett were fully booked by Jan. 31, 2024, they opened spaces they had held in Monohan Hall.
“Our primary goal is to make sure we are serving all students on campus, and no returning student will be denied housing,” Bouldin said. “To achieve a balanced distribution of on-campus spaces for first year students. We recognize the development significance of the on-campus experience for them”
Bouldin advised returning students to complete their residence applications no later than the Feb. 14 deadline, if they want to be able to use the self-selection process.
Nicodemus Gabel is a contributing writer for MTSU Sidelines.
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