More students to live in on-campus houses next year
Despite the perception that Waynesburg University is increasingly stingy when assigning on-campus houses to students, this year the university awarded more on-campus houses than they originally advertised they would.
Thirteen groups who applied for houses were successful. Although the university said initially that they would award only 10 houses, the same number currently occupied during the school year, which is currently in progress.
The increase, according to Jessica Sumpter, assistant dean of Student Services and director of housing, is due to projections that next year’s number of resident students will exceed the campus dorms’ capacity.
“The goal and purpose of on-campus houses is for residence hall overflow – capacity overflow,” said Sumpter. “I know that there may be some added benefits, but ultimately the reason why we have our on-campus houses in place is because we don’t have enough beds in the halls alone to be able to house everybody.”
Each year, students who want to live in an on-campus house must collect a group and fill out an online application, which is then reviewed by a housing committee. The groups are assessed based on each student’s cumulative GPA, their number of credits earned as of the end of the fall semester and their discipline records.
The groups also write an essay describing why they want to live in an on-campus house; additionally they must list four service projects that they will participate in as a group during the course of the year.
This year, the main change in the process is an increase in the GPA requirement from a cumulative 2.5 to a 2.8. Each student must earn the required GPA; it isn’t an average among the group. Sumpter said students must be cognizant of the group they apply with, since one student not meeting the necessary requirements can ruin an overall effective application.
“It may be a great application, and five out of the six students have a 4.0, but one student doesn’t meet that requirement,” said Sumpter. “When you’re applying as a house, you’re applying as a group and we’re looking at that application as a group, and if one person doesn’t meet the application criteria, it’s unfortunate.”
There is sometimes a misconception, according to Sumpter, that on-campus houses will always be available for students to take advantage of, when in fact they have a specific purpose. In the past, there has been a perception that if a group lives in a house one year, they would automatically receive it again the next year – an idea referred to as “legacy houses.”
Sumpter said this is an incorrect assumption.
“Any residence hall room is also not a legacy room,” said Sumpter. “There’s not a claim that you’re able to sign up for the room that you lived in the year before; houses are the same way.”
Some students also have the impression that being involved in certain campus activities automatically counts them out or gives them a boost, which Sumpter disproved. For instance, while football and baseball players are not permitted to live off-campus as seniors (a policy in effect prior to the change in the off-campus housing policy), they are evaluated for on-campus houses in the same way as all other applicants. Sumpter emphasized that GPA, credits earned and discipline records are the three primary means of evaluating house applicants.
“Ultimately, we do look un-biasedly as much as possible and try to make it as fair as possible when deciding who is placed within the houses,” said Sumpter. “It’s hard when somebody doesn’t get a house and you start to try to comprehend [why you didn’t], but ultimately we fall back on that criteria.”
Sumpter said she made an effort to make on-campus house requirements as clear as possible under the Residence Life tab on myConnect, outlining the three main criteria and explaining expectations.
Students who received on-campus houses were notified Friday, March 18. Those who applied and were unsuccessful had the opportunity to apply for triple or quad rooms until March 23, and they can now sign up for a traditional dorm room in Burns, Ray, Denny, Martin or Thayer or enter the lottery for two-person apartment-style rooms in South, West, East, Pollock and Willison dorms.
Further information can be found on the myConnect Residence Life tab.