NORMAL, Ill. (WMBD) — Classes started on Monday, Aug. 18, at Illinois State University, and for the second year running, the dorms are beyond maximum capacity.
With move-in week taking place last week, the University is experiencing the same student housing issues it had last year.
Hillary Campos, the assistant director of marketing communications at housing services, said that this year, the situation has gotten a bit better.
“So we’re actually in a lot better place than last year due to the fast flow delays last year,” Campos said. “That did delay some things for us. Luckily, we don’t have that this year, so we’re in a better place. We have emptied over 50 Percent of our lounges as of today so that’s really promising.”
In years past, it would take roughly 6 weeks to empty out the lounges of the dorms. With the current pace, Campos expects this process to be completed sooner this year.
“I think we’re going to have those empty a lot sooner than anticipated,” she said.
To accommodate the inconvenience of having to move into the lounges of the dorms instead of an actual room. Students will receive a $250 credit to students when they move out of the lounges.
While there have been concerns that this inconvenience is happening in all three dorm facilities on campus, Campos said that most of it is happening in one location.
“We only have students in lounges in Watterson Towers, and very few people in the lounges at Manchester,” she said.
While it may be unfortunate to have students living in temporary lounges of the dorms this year and possible for the next couple of years. The university is looking forward to solutions to remedy the situation in the future.
“So, building additional housing, we have been looking at that,” she said. “It’s not going to be an overnight fix, and it will be a lot of planning that will take over, probably the next few years.”
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