Andrew Crighton
Staff Writer
Living on campus can be a big part of the college experience. Whether it is in the dorms or campus apartments, it’s almost a rite of passage. ISU has many offerings, from residence halls, to apartments, to ‘suite style living’ in Rendezvous; but what is it like living on campus, compared to off campus apartments?
To live in one of the residence halls for the 2015-2016 academic year, it would cost $1,330 or $1,800 per semester for a double or single room, respectively. On campus apartments cost between $520 and $700 per month. Rendezvous is $1,900 per semester.
Freshman and sophomore students at ISU are required to purchase a meal plan to live on campus. Meal plans cost between $848 and $2019.30 per semester, with the plans costing $848.00 and 1060.00 only available to juniors and seniors.
While many students, especially those new to ISU or the area choose to live on campus, many students also choose to seek housing off campus.
Pocatello Heights Apartments offers rooms of 1 to 3 bedrooms from $435 to $700 per month. Hillside Village Apartments offer a four bedroom for $315 per month. Bengal Creek offers a six bedroom apartment for $285 per month.
But what is the social aspect of living on campus?
The University Housing website says that there are “30 plus programs and events on your floor every semester.” Living so closely with so many people can provide a highly social setting, but it can also cause some friction.
“The dorm was loud all hours of the day and night,” said Cody James, who lived in Turner Hall his freshman year of school.
The dorms have quiet hours, usually determined by a floor charter at the beginning of each year, but it’s up to the RA to enforce them, unless someone reports a disturbance to public safety.
Turner Hall is also allegedly starting to age and one of the main struggles is reportedly the central heating and lack of cooling. To cool, each room has a window that can be opened. As for the heating, there is a unit in each room that is turned on or off by facilities, which can take a while. According to James, that didn’t happen last year until the temperature was well below freezing on a regular basis.
Money was spent on updating this residence hall last year, but it was on new security features, updating the card readers on the exterior doors, adding them to all the doors leading to the floor from the stairwells and adding them to the elevators, which will only be called after a resident swipes their Bengal ID, and are not popular among everyone.
“I don’t feel the card readers were the best use of our money. Safety should be the top priority, there’s no argument there, but I feel that there is a more effective system,” said James.
One of the main reasons that people do live on campus is due to convenience. Living on campus is a centralized location near to most places students would need to go for classes and therefore allows students to return to their in between classes to work on homework, switch out books, or take a much needed nap.
