WKU News & Events

March 11, 2002

Students Camp Out For Rooms In
Renovated Residence Halls

Bowling Green, Ky. - While many Western Kentucky University faithful spent Sunday evening worryin

g about where their team would be playing in the NCAA Tournament, hundreds of students were more concerned about where they'd be living next fall.

Students braved cold temperatures and spent the night camping outside Potter Hall waiting for Housing and Residence Life to begin taking housing applications for the 2002 fall semester. By 10 a.m. Monday, about 1,000 applications had been taken.

The main attraction? Four renovated residence halls that will reopen next fall.

Renovations of North, South, East and West halls are the latest steps in a $40 million project by the Student Life Foundation to revamp Western's on-campus housing. McLean Hall reopened last fall and other work is under way or planned for other residence halls.

"The excitement level is way up," said Kit Tolbert, director of Housing Operations. "It's a nice selling point for the whole university."

After students camped out overnight last spring to sign up for rooms in McLean Hall, Tolbert expected the same this year. The 600 beds in the directional halls along with about 120 in McLean have joined the nearly 400 in Zacharias and Meredith halls as the most popular choices for students, Tolbert said.

"The first people got here at 9 a.m. Sunday," she said. "The numbers just kept building as the day went on. I wasn't surprised by the numbers, but I was surprised by the tents."

Tents popped up outside Potter Hall "like umbrellas in a rainstorm," said Elizabeth Gholami, a Louisville freshman who arrived about 2 p.m. Sunday.

Gholami and Kina Tasch, a Louisville freshman, were among the first in line to sign up for a room.

They brought some supplies to camp out but quickly realized they needed more than blankets to stay warm and rented a tent from the Preston Health and Activities Center.

Students spent the night hanging out, singing, studying and trying to stay warm. "I feel sorry for the people who slept on the concrete," which was colder and harder than the grassy areas, Tasch said.

Tolbert said students were well-behaved and maintained a positive attitude as they waited to get inside. Housing employees began accepting applications at 6:20 a.m., 40 minutes sooner than expected.

WKU police officers stood at the entrance and let about 12 students inside at a time. Students should learn their room assignments by April 10, Tolbert said.

By 7 a.m., Tasch and Gholami had made their way inside, placed their applications and were packing up their blankets and tent.

"I'm just ready to go and thaw out," Tasch said.

For more information, contact Kit Tolbert at (270) 745-2100. More WKU news is available on the World Wide Web at www.wku.edu. If you'd like to receive WKU news via E-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.