Living In It

Last school year from 2010-2011, a temporary overflow housing plan was put into action. It was quite similar to the plan that was implemented for this school year. Study lounges were converted to rooms for up to 5 people, and rooms in Towers Hall were converted to rooms for 3 people (Student Life and Administrative Services). However, there was something different about this living situation: it was only temporary. By the end of winter term, residence halls were pretty much back to the way they were before the overflow housing plan was put into action. If the occupants chose to return to the original format, triple occupancy rooms were returned to double occupancy rooms  (many people did not want to change), and the study lounge suites were returned to study lounges that were available for people who lived on the different floors of the building.

When most people think of the overflow housing plan, Towers Hall is highlighted. The supposedly poor and unfortunate kids who have to live with two other people in a room originally only meant for two people to live in were always pitied. According to current sophomore Mikaela Price, many of those people, when given the option, did not want to move out of the triple. As unfortunate as you might think the living situation may be, some people really enjoyed it and did not want to leave the tripled room. Students grew attached to their roommates and learned how to make their living situations work. A current student, who wishes to remain anonymous, does enjoy living in Towers Hall. Unfortunately, she has a different opinion about the room changes. She believes that having three girls in a room originally meant for two can cause problems and bad situations to occur more often. Obviously, the views of Drexel's overflow housing plan are very personalized and diverse.

Outside of Towers Hall, other residence halls were also affected by the overflow housing plan. Mikaela lived in Kelly Hall last year, just like I do now. The rooms are too small in order to fit three people; therefore, they are capped at two people per room. However, on each floor in Kelly Hall there is a study lounge that is shared with another floor. These two-story study lounges were converted to rooms for five people last year. Three of these people lived on the bottom floor of each lounge and two lived on the top floor. Luckily for Mikaela last year, the bedroom lounges were returned to actual study lounges for the floor members after the winter term. She loved living in Kelly Hall and made full use of the study lounge on her floor in order to hang out with her friends and to get work done whenever she needed to get out of her room. As much as I love living in Kelly Hall now, I wish I had access to the study lounge on my floor. I have to admit the rooms are quite nice, but I wish they were open to everyone to use as a study space. Since these lounges were converted to rooms, that only left two study lounges in the building: one in the basement, which mandates 24 hour quiet hours, and one on the ground floor, which gets full often.

According to Mikaela, the overflow housing plan was not bad last year, since it was only temporary. When she worked as an Orientation Leader this past summer, she learned of these plans becoming permanent. She was able to accept last year’s plan because it did not last the entire year. When talking to her about the plan this year, she felt bad for me because I wouldn’t get to experience Kelly Hall in its entirety. If this housing plan maintains for future students, no one will really be able to experience the entirety of the residence halls as they were originally intended when built.