Update: Though the article initially reported that 99 percent of beds were filled, the current number is not definite. RAs did not end up sharing room, it was a consideration at the beginning of the year.
On-campus housing hit a peak this year, when 99 percent of the beds on campus were filled. It led to singles being modified into doubles, and Residence Assistants (RAs) having to give up their singles to share a room with other students who were moving in. While this is a very good sign, signaling the amount of growth that this campus has seen in the last several years, something needs to be done about the housing here on campus.
RAs are a fantastic resource, but part of the perks of being an RA is the room. They each get a private room that allows them to live with the students on their floor, while not having to deal with the everyday issues of having a roommate.
With the eventuality of maxing out the number of beds available for students, it becomes far more critical to ensure that future RAs are receiving all of the perks. Students who see RAs having to share rooms with incoming freshmen are not going to willingly participate in that program.
With the student body recently experiencing growth, something needs to be done about the looming shortage of classrooms and desks, but more pressing is where students next year, and the year after, are going to live.
Recent high school graduates are coming in from all over the state now, and even from some of the surrounding states. They depend on housing here to make sure there is room for them, and if there isn’t any leftover this year, what is going to happen next year?
Many of Colorado Mesa University’s (CMU) students are dependent on the dorm rooms available at the school and are here in Grand Junction because those were made available to them. CMU’s money would be far better spent on residence halls, at least for the next couple of structures that are added to CMU’s property. There is more growth available for campus if more students can transplant themselves right here in the Grand Valley and have a bed available for them that is not crammed into a single sized room.
The growth that CMU has shown in recent years is incredible, and it will only continue to grow in the future. The school, as a whole, needs more space for the students of tomorrow. But more pressing than new classrooms is how students are going to be living here.
CMU should be focused on dorms for a little while so that those students have somewhere to live when they come in from out of town. No one should have to worry about whether or not they get a room when they are already stressing out about the college experience as a whole.
