Iowa universities see bump in on-campus living

IOWA CITY - Hello, my name is Michael. Hello, my name is Boyang.

As Mike Anderson, 18, of Moline, Ill., rolled a cart full of clothes, hangers and electronics up to his new dorm room Tuesday, he was greeted by those name tags - stuck to his door as a way of welcoming him to campus and introducing him to his neighbors.

'I'm about to meet my roommate,” Anderson said. 'He's from Shanghai.”

Thousands of University of Iowa students - the most in school history - were doing the same as part of a three-day move-in.

In time for this semester, the university opened its first new residence hall in nearly 50 years, increasing its housing capacity to 6,545 from 5,895 a year ago.

The 11-story Mary Louise Petersen Residence Hall comes as officials project a record-breaking freshmen class of more than 5,000, topping last year's entering class of 4,666.

'I'm so excited to be here,” said Amy Keech, 18, of Johnston, after moving into her room in the new Petersen Residence Hall.

Although the brunt of UI students living on campus are moving in now, some were allowed to move in over the weekend, including those involved in a welcome program for first-generation students.

And Iowa State University is on a similar schedule, allowing some students to move in as early as last Friday and over the weekend, but scheduling most of its residence hall move-ins to begin Tuesday.

ISU, like Iowa, is expecting to break records with both its freshmen class and residence hall population this fall.

Amid that, more returning students are asking to stay in the residence halls, said Brittany Rutherford, communications coordinator for ISU's Department of Residence.

ISU this fall expects to house about 12,514 students on campus - either in residence halls, apartments or interim housing. Last year it counted 12,237 on-campus residents

'So this will be a record for us,” Rutherford said. 'The second year in a row of record occupancy.”

Come 2017, ISU will have a new residence hall offering an additional 784 beds.

UI also is over capacity in its residence hall system, with housing requests from nearly 6,700 students. That has 130-some students temporarily assigned to a 'transitional space,” said Von Stange, assistant vice president for student life and senior director of housing and dining.

Those students can wait from weeks to an entire semester before getting into a permanent room, depending on how many no-shows and early exits there are.

In hopes of accommodating the university's efforts to grow its student body and meeting housing demands from more returning students, the campus in 2017 is adding a second new residence hall capable of housing 1,050 students, Stange said.

And the Board of Regents recently gave UI the go-ahead to plan a third new residence hall that could house 500 to 600 students near Kinnick Stadium.

With that growth in mind, the university is using some new techniques this year to streamline the move-ins.

Those moving into a west-side hall, for instance, aren't allowed to park on site. Instead, incoming students must first meet at an off-site 'Hawk Lot” to retrieve room keys, return to campus where volunteers help unload their vehicle, and then immediately return the vehicle to the off-site lot. Buses shuttle students back and forth.

Lori and Todd Keech described the move-in process for their daughter as 'convenient,” 'easy,” and 'wonderful.”

Move-in at the University of Northern Iowa will begin in earnest Wednesday and Thursday, said Scott Ketelsen, director of university relations. UNI is projecting increases in new freshmen, transfer and graduate student enrollment, and freshmen housing contracts are up 5.5 percent over last year, according to Ketelsen.

Fall semester classes for all three universities begin Monday.