Increasing enrollment at Ole Miss causes changes to student housing

Minor Hall, pictured, along with Ridge North and Burns Hall, are the University's newest residence halls.  These three residence halls opened in the fall of 2012 to accommodate the increasing enrollment at Ole Miss.

Some Ole Miss sophomores and upperclassmen may be looking off-campus for a place to live next fall.  With a steadily increasing enrollment and a freshmen residency requirement, housing officials find themselves in a predicament as to where to put all these freshmen.  As a result, they had to make decisions about which upperclassmen housing options would stay and which would go.

Jennifer McClure, Assistant Director for Marketing for Student Housing, explains that the changes are not as drastic as some may think.  According to McClure, the only real change is that Crosby Hall will not be able to house sophomore sorority communities.  The residential colleges and university apartment complexes, including Northgate Apartments, Campus Walk, and The Village, will still accommodate non-freshmen.

There are, however, two changes being made to Northgate Apartments.  The first change is that the university could not renew many of the current Northgate residents’ contracts.  This is because the university has to house certain scholarship students on-campus. The university will be using Northgate to accommodate Ole Miss Opportunity Scholars.  These are scholarship recipients who must live on-campus during their sophomore year.

The second change to Northgate is actually tearing part of it down.  The Monday after commencement, the university will tear down two of the Northgate buildings to build a residence hall like Minor Hall, which will house many more students.

McClure says this is not the first time the university has used this strategy.  In order to build Minor Hall, Ridge North, and Burns Hall, the university tore down Miller Hall.  These three residence halls now house 862 freshmen.

McClure explains the reasoning behind the change, saying, “Again, we will be taking something that takes up a lot of space but doesn’t house many people, and put a much more space-efficient structure on that piece of land.”

McClure says the university’s strategy is to accommodate the growing number of freshmen while looking ahead to house more upperclassmen in the future.  Mary Katherine Graham, Teaching Assistant in the Patterson School of Accountancy, thinks this strategy is a good one.

Graham says, “Living on campus is an important growing experience for freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors, alike.  I lived on campus all four year of undergrad until I started my graduate program, and I am so glad I had that experience.  I hope the university will follow through with its strategy for providing housing options to upperclassmen so that other students can have the same experience I did.”

For more on the university's strategy and the importance of upperclassmen living on campus, view a clip from Al's interview with Jennifer McClure, below.

Sources may be contacted at:
Jennifer McClure, Assistant Director for Marketing, Student Housing - jlmcclur@olemiss.edu
Mary Katherine Graham, Teaching Assistant in the Patterson School of Accountancy - mkgraha1@go.olemiss.edu

Larger incoming class raises housing concerns

The Department of Student Housing has had to already make changes in order to prepare to house incoming freshman.

With the University of Mississippi anticipating one of its largest incoming freshman classes, many current students are becoming concerned about housing.

According to an earlier publication by The Daily Mississippian, freshman classes have grown by 37 percent from 2009 to 2013. With the number of students continuing to rise, more space is needed to house them.

In response, Student Housing has already made some changes for the 2014-2015 school year.

First, construction to build a new residence hall will start after the 2014 spring semester. Originally, the new dormitory was planned to be built before the fall of 2016. However, the current housing options would not be able to accommodate the projected 2015 freshman class, so the new building is now slated to be completed by the fall of 2015 to house these students.

The new dormitory will follow the designs of the Ridge residence halls with four floors and will have space for 304 students.

Perhaps the largest change to students is the reallocation of beds on campus. On-campus housing will only be offered to freshman and non-freshman participating in certain campus groups next year. Many beds previously offered to students in Crosby Hall, Northgate Hall, Residential College South, and Luckyday Residential College will no longer be open to non-freshman.

Previously, many sophomore sorority women lived in Crosby Hall. Now, many have to find housing alternatives off-campus, leaving some women feeling upset.

Whitney Young, a freshman member of Phi Mu, believes that the university is letting its students down with not offering on-campus housing to non-freshman, especially within Crosby Hall.

"Sororities usually live there on the same floor [in Crosby Hall] to get to know each other better, but now that can't happen. It's disappointing to me and my sisters,” says Young.

Around 565 to 575 beds in Crosby Hall, Northgate Hall, Residential College South, and Luckyday Residential College will now only be available to freshman. These numbers also don't include spaces reserved for their respective Community Assistants.

Some students like Young believe the university should be handling the housing situation differently.

"Housing should be set aside for upperclassman, or more dorms should be built with more floors. The university needs to be able to house all its students,” says Young.

We sat down with Dalton Capps, a Community Assistant in Burns Residence Hall, to learn about other concerns spurred from the university enrolling more students.

Although Student Housing has begun planning out enough space for future incoming freshman, many current students feel that these accommodations come at the expense of their own housing.

Greater enrollment leads to more philanthropy

As the Ole Miss Student Body grows to about 25,000, so does the opportunity to give back to the Oxford Community.

Ole Miss is growing at an alarming rate. You can see it everywhere, from the construction of the parking garage, and the new Johnson Commons, to the growing number of students joining Greek organizations. One place where people might not think to look for growth is in the amount of  volunteer work being done in the Ole Miss community.

This past year alone, the students of Ole Miss have raised record funds for a variety of charities. For example, Theta Encore raised more than $15000 for CASA, Court-Appointed Special Advocates, and kept its title as the largest philanthropy event on campus. Students are volunteering at places like Leapfrog tutoring, and the Humane Society.

Many students are required to do independent service hours by the clubs and organizations they are a part of.  With the student population growing, and such a great number of that population being involved, the amount of service done by the students of Ole Miss will be unparalleled.

The greatest showing of student philanthropy would definitely be The Big Event. It happens on one day in the Spring Semester, usually early April. The students  can sign up as individuals or in teams, and they are given projects to complete throughout the community. The assignments vary greatly. One group had to plant flowers; another organized clothes for a yard sale. Harrison Drake, freshman, and his group, were given the task of splitting logs for an elderly woman in Oxford.

“It was hard work, but so worth it. The lady, who lived alone, was so grateful to us for spending the 

 morning helping her.”

Harrison Drake, in orange, and the gentlemen of Pi Kappa Phi, after the Big Event.

There were a record-breaking number of people signed up this past year, and Austin Dean, Co-Director of Outreach for The Big Event, expects the number to double or triple by next year. Dean, who I interviewed for this project, also is employed by the Vice Chancellor’s office.  He is working towards becoming a major player in Ole Miss philanthropy, so he is thrilled that the student population will correlate to an increase in volunteer work.

The increase in students at Ole Miss is often seen as a burden- depleting available on-campus housing, and causing classes to fill up faster. However, if you take a step back and look at the benefits, like having more volunteers, you will realize that more people may not always be a bad thing. 

Sources:

Harrison Drake- harrisondrakemusic@gmail.com

Austin Dean- amdean@go.olemiss.edu

Ole Miss explodes in student enrollment

‘Hotty Toddy, gosh almighty who the hell are we?’

This ever-resonating chant will only grow more popular as enrollment increases here at Ole Miss.  The trend for the University of Mississippi’s enrollment has increased by 43.9 percent over the last decade, with the 2012-2013 calendar year reaching an all time high of over 21 hundred students.

The increase in student enrollment can be seen through the outstanding school programs and because of the Development Studies Department.

Transfer junior Colby Hall is part of the accounting program here at Ole Miss and sees the increase in enrollment through applying for her next semester classes.

“As a transfer I understood last year that scheduling my classes would be difficult because most students had already been able to register, but this semester was even more difficult to get into some of my classes I need to graduate. There are only so many time slots open for accounting classes and with more students enrolling current students have to fight to get in classes they need," she states. 

The accounting program at Ole Miss was ranked in the nations top 10 this past year for all three degree programs. The undergraduate and master’s program were both ranked at number 9 and the doctoral program was ranked at number 8.

Along with an outstanding accounting program, Ole Miss offers classes for students who are accepted with a lower score than most students. Ole Miss is greatly known for accommodating students who learn at a different rate.

Nancy Anderson, says that, "As an instructor in the Developmental Studies Department, we are involved with Ole Miss accepting students who have lower ACT scores, and our job is to help them during their freshman year to be ready to take regular class loads.  Our department works together  ( math, reading, English, and study skills) to enable the students get the extra assistance and instruction they need to be successful.  Our classes are small and we form a "bridge" from high school to college.  This might be one reason why our enrollment numbers are higher."

After sitting down with Overby Center faculty member and university professor, Bill Rose, I got a little more insight to why Ole Miss is such a prospected school and what the school is doing to accommodate new students and classes.  

Dining On Campus

Since 2011, the Ole Miss Dining Services have been keeping pace with the significant increase of population and demands for quality, healthy, and fast food for students, faculty, and staff at the University of Mississippi. You might have experience a sense of “over-population” while waiting in line at the Union. The Associated Press reported in 2011 “the University experienced a 20 percent growth in the freshmen class and an increase of the overall student body of 7 percent.” In the fall of 2013, Ole Miss topped yet another record enrollment. The University enrolled more than 22,000 students. Chancellor Dan Jones said, “Ole Miss, which has recorded increased student numbers for 19 straight years, is a testament to the quality and diversity of the University’s academic offerings.” Throughout campus, we are starting to notice more construction, bigger classes, and more freshmen dorms.

 Ole Miss students try to avoid the crowd in the Union by patiently waiting in the Panda Express line before noon.

The staggering increase of population poses challenges to Jason Phillips, Director of Operations for Ole Miss Dining Services. An Ole Miss student, Andrew Parker, had more to say about the situation, “I eat on campus at least five times a week. The lines in the Union get outrageous around lunch time, so I normally wait to eat either a late lunch or an early dinner.”

The Johnson Commons Dining Hall, better known as the JC, has upgraded the kitchen, dining facilities, and menu to better serve their customers.  Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are served Monday through Friday with many appetizing choices.  For example, the JC menu offers an array of options such as a deli, pastas, pizzas, salads, soups, vegetables and desserts. Multiple checkouts allow faster service to customers with demanding schedules. For the customers convenience, the JC accepts many types of payments including: Meal Plans, Flex Dollars, Cash, Credit Cards, Debit Cards and Ole Miss Express.
In the last few years, the Student Union Food Court, better know as the Union, has added more restaurants to meet customer needs. Conveniently located in the center of campus, the Union is home to many types of quality, fast food restaurants such as Burger Studio, Chick-fil-a, Topio’s Pizza, Toss It Up, Subway, Southern Tsunami Sushi, Pinkberry, and, of course Panda Express. The Union offers convenience, a variety of foods, seven day per week food, and fast service. The Union is a popular spot to be during lunch hours, as students are rushing to get food. Also, you can stop by the Union to check your mailbox and visit the Ole Miss Bookstore.

Increasing Admissions Effects on Panhellenic

 

Taken from Bid Day 2013 as girls run to there new houses.

Over the years, The University of Mississippi has been accepting more and more students resulting in an increase in everything from housing to rush. Many changes are being made to the Greek system as a way to cope with the large amount of students going through Panhellenic recruitment in the fall of 2014.

In order for Ole Miss to keep up with this growing population of students, two new sororities are coming on campus. The newest one that was put in place last Fall is Alpha Delta Pi.  This year Alpha Phi will also be brought into the sorority circle. Although they do not have houses, this is a great way to increase the number of sororities offering more membership spaces for freshman girls to participate in Greek life.

In addition, girls will not have the security blanket of being guaranteed a spot in the house like they used to. There are currently 10  sororities on campus as listed here http://dos.orgsync.com/org/umgreeks/npc. They must maximize their options to the fullest during ranking to increase their chances to the fullest to earn a placement.  Due to the large amount of freshman that will be attending the University next Fall, the Sorority dorm Crosby will now be turned back into a freshman dorm in order to accommodate the increased attendance.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Ali Corbin, Tri Deltas Vice President of Membership. She shared her insight on the increasing amount of people going through Rush with me. Ali states that many of the sororities on campus would like to make their pledge classes smaller since they are at an all time high right now with a pledge class of about 120 people. It is very hard to shrink the size of these pledge classes with so many people continuing to go through.  One big change this year is that Water parties, the very first event of rush, will no longer exist. In fact a whole new round of rush will be added to this years Panhellenic recruitment.

           Greek life provides dynamic organizations to be a part of that everyone should have the chance to participate in if they chose so.  With Ole Miss’s increasing Greek community, it must be able to sustain the amount of people willing to join.

http://youtu.be/NTEF3ldJYqA 

Final Projects Due by 5 p.m. Wednesday, May 7

JOUR 102 students, post your final projects here.

Remember, they should read as broadcast stories, conversational and less formal. And you're typing them as usual – no split broadcast screens or audio/video directions. 

Your final projects should include: your 400-word broadcast story, at least one photo that you took, with a cutline, and a one- to two-minute source soundbite. Your soundbite should not also appear as a quote in your broadcast story; however, you may feature different quotes by your soundbite source in your typed story. 

And, as always, your sources will be verified.