With the change in lottery number distribution for university housing this year, the residence life department is working to place students who did not get their first choices for next year’s housing.

This year, lottery numbers were distributed randomly as opposed to years past, when lottery numbers were based on student credit hours.

Karla Cunningham, director of residence life, said everyone has a bed and a place to live next year.

“We’re managing the lists of students who want to be placed in different housing than they had on selection night,” Cunningham said. “We will work from now until opening to match students with their first preference as openings happen.”

Cunningham said openings occur often but are also unpredictable.

Openings can occur if students end up studying abroad, moving into Greek housing or not returning to Butler the following fall.

As the numbers currently stand, 48 rising sophomores are projected to live in Ross Hall again next year, and 53 rising sophomores are projected to live in Schwitzer Hall next year.

No juniors were placed in Residential College.

Doug Howell, associate director of residence life, said in an email that the numbers as they stand now are as high as they will get, as residence life will be constantly working to move sophomores out of the freshman residence halls.

“Last year at this time, we did have a number of sophomores assigned to Ross and Schwitzer going into the summer,” Howell said.  “However, by the time we opened in August, we had zero sophomores living there.”

Howell said that was the first time that residence life, within 20 years of personal experience, knew of a time when there were not some sophomores living in Ross or Schwitzer.

While this year’s zero was a fluke, Howell said, the number is usually small, with somewhere around 10 to 15 sophomores living in each freshman residence hall.

Sophomores generally live in the Residential College or the Christian Theological Seminary.

Freshman Jared Shindler is currently projected to live in Ross Hall for his sophomore year.

“It wasn’t my first choice, but as long as I can still go to Butler, I’ll be fine,” Shindler said. “If I do have the chance to move, I’ll most likely take it.”

Cunningham said the residence life department will cluster the sophomores together in a unit so they won’t be scattered throughout the building.

She said the unit’s resident assistant will be aware that residents are sophomores so programming and events for them can be planned accordingly.

Some students, such as sophomore Catherine Skoog and her roommates, did not get their first choice of living in Apartment Village for next year.

“We wanted to live there because of its closeness to the Pharmacy Building because we’re all pharmacy majors and at times can have late classes and labs,” Skoog said.  “We did not want to be walking back so far in the dark after classes.”

Skoog said they ended up signing for an apartment in the Christian Theological Seminary, but it seemed to her that both that location and AV filled up quickly.

Current juniors have the option to stay in their on-campus apartments if they wish to for their senior year.

“I think it would have been a good year to allow some of the juniors to live off campus if they would have liked to,” Skoog said.

The university has a rule that students have to live on campus for at least three years unless they have commuter status and live at home.

As the largest freshman class moves through the progressive housing, Cunningham said changing that rule would be a bigger discussion for more than just the residence life department.

With that considered, she said she doesn’t see any change for it at this point.

“I think there are benefits for the three-year residency requirement,” Cunningham said. “Students who live on campus are more involved, can access services and might have stronger relationships with their peers who they live with.   This helps them to be more engaged on campus and (with) their academic programs because they are able to access those services more conveniently.”

An unknown burglar entered the unlocked rooms of Ross Hall residents early Thursday morning.

Five unlawful entries occurred from Thursday to Friday resulting in stolen items, including laptops, iPods, cell phones and money.

Butler University Police Department said no sign of forced entry into Ross has been found; it suspects the thief is a student who lives within the facility.

The crimes are categorized as non-forcible burglaries, which are still felonies in the state of Indiana. The person responsible for these incidents is subject to arrest, even if the incidents are thought to be pranks on other students.

BUPD released a timely warning the same day that the crimes were reported.

The burglar woke up freshman Nicholas Bartolone when he or she entered the room, and the individual immediately left.

“The guy in a black sweatshirt entered my room early in the morning, and he must have been spooked when he saw me,” Bartolone said. “I got lucky because he left without taking anything.”

Freshmen Steven Showstead and Dylan Menefee were not as lucky, both having items stolen.

“I heard the door open, but I thought it was just my roommate, but when I woke up, my phone was gone,” Menefee said. “It’s unfortunate and I miss my phone.”

“The one night I leave my computer and wallet in the middle of the room is the one night this happens,” Showstead said. “I’m pretty pissed off, and I hope BUPD finds them.”

“I think the one thing we’ve all learned is to make sure we lock our doors at night,” Bartolone said.

Bill Weber, assistant police chief, said BUPD has good reason to believe the burglar was a Butler student, but he did not want to compromise the investigation by explaining why.

“This was a crime of opportunity,” Weber said. “You might get away with not locking your door a hundred times, but the next time, it could happen. You know, tag you’re it. You’ve been bit.”

Butler University is facing a time when the incoming classes continue to grow. The current expected freshman class size of 1,111 students shot up from last year’s class size of 926.
Upperclassmen were offered alternative housing opportunities to help accommodate freshmen.
In 2003, additional housing options were offered when Butler’s incoming freshman class totaled 976 students. This was, at the time, the largest class size in Butler’s history.
“This is not the first time we’ve had the next largest class ever,” Vice President for Student Affairs Levester Johnson said.
“Each year, we’ve utilized what resources and partnerships we have in order to address and provide additional space that we need.”
One of these partnerships is the Christian Theological Seminary apartments, located at the intersection of 42nd street and Haughey Avenue.  This option was also offered in 2003 and 2010.
Upperclassmen living in this alternative option pay the Residential College rate, which runs at approximately $5,370 per year for a double room. Fifty-nine students plus one resident assistant will be living there this year.
Accommodations were made in the freshman dorms as well.   Fifteen rooms in Schwitzer Hall and 10 male Ross Hall rooms were converted from double rooms to triple rooms. This has been used as an answer to growth before.
Ross has a capacity of 500 students while Schwitzer can now hold around 470 students thanks to the basement renovations that occurred there two years ago, which added more dorm rooms.
“We’re not in a (housing) crisis situation,” Karla Cunningham, director of residence life, said. “I think our facility staff has done a nice job of making sure the rooms are set up with plenty of room and floor space for each student.”
Freshmen who voluntarily opted for the converted triples pay a reduced room rate of $3,210 per year instead of the normal double rate of $4,810 per year.
“I thought at first I wanted a double room, but then, I considered the triple,” freshman Benjamin Abel said. “I’ll be able to save money.  It could use a little bit more closet space, but other than that, it’s pretty good so far.”
The increasing freshman classes and sophomore year retention rates contribute to the population growth.
“We’re getting into the phase where policies on housing are being evaluated in order to accommodate increasing numbers,” Johnson said. “We want to do what’s best for Butler.”
What’s best for Butler, Johnson said, depends on feedback and opinions straight from the student body, families and faculty.
“Right now, we’re at a stage where we all need to work together to come up with a strategic plan on moving forward,” Johnson said. “We’re trying to find answers to where we can max out at providing the true Butler experience.”
The strategic plan includes opinions on the size of the university over the next few years, and, if it does grow, the possible addition of a new dorm.
“We always need to be looking at what’s the best housing option for students and making good decisions,” Cunningham said.
Nothing is currently set in stone. The New Student Success Task Force, which is comprised of faculty from different departments, was first established in 2003 to deal with the new growth that year.
Johnson and the force are merely etching out possible plans for the future.
“We want this to be an inclusive process by which people are providing feedback to the thoughts and ideas that are out there,” Johnson said.  “In the end, it’s in everyone’s interest to make Butler the best Butler it can be.”

The daily cleaning of every dormitory bathroom is only one responsibility of Butler University’s housekeeping staff.

Richard Hamm, director of building services, works closely with his supervisors, Augusto Acosta and Jenny Roell, to try to keep the residence halls as clean and sanitary as possible.

Acosta supervises Ross Hall, Residential College and the Apartment Village, and Roell is supervisor for Schwitzer Hall and University Terrace.

Hamm said there are typically 16 staff members working each day during the week who are responsible for cleaning the public bathrooms of the residence halls daily, as well as performing weekly sanitary procedures for things like doorknobs, handrails and other frequently touched surfaces throughout the buildings.

Water is considered housekeeping’s biggest problem because even after standing water is cleaned up, it can often cause mold, mildew or electrical issues in places unseen, Acosta said.

“Water is our biggest enemy,” Hamm said. “Communication is our biggest friend.”

Hamm said that this is one reason that communication is so important because reporting these sorts of incidents immediately can help reduce the likelihood of a situation worsening.

Hamm said the main thing that residents can do to help housekeeping address issues promptly and appropriately is to make sure they communicate with their resident assistant when they see problem areas.

Even with the staff’s effort, some students said they think the bathrooms could still be cleaner.

Renee Mommaerts, a freshman psychology and pre-med major, said that the showers always seem very dirty.

“There are hairballs everywhere,” she said.

Phil Dwyer, a freshman computer science major, said he heard of an incident when someone put a trash can in one of Ross Hall’s showers and another incident involving someone vomiting in the shower area.

“Monday mornings are rough,” Hamm said.

When breakouts are reported, such as the H1N1 virus two years ago, these procedures are performed more frequently to minimize the spread of infection.

Acosta said that the products housekeeping uses to clean and sanitize are designed to be cleaner and safer, using completely green products excluding when it does deep cleaning over the summer.

During extended breaks, such as the upcoming fall break, scheduled maintenances are done as needed. The summer is spent prepping the dorms for Welcome Week, and winter break is designated for more time-consuming projects, like carpet cleaning and stripping and waxing of floors.

While staff focuses on common areas, the main issue of the housekeeping staff is recycling and waste removal. Butler received a $25,000 grant from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management in 2007. Hamm said that this allowed housekeeping to improve the quality of recycling stations and management without assuming any additional labor costs.

Hamm also said that the staff handles around six pickup loads of trash for a single weekend, and the housekeeping staff is usually only about three members on weekends, when all it does is handle garbage removal.

When vandalism occurs over the weekend, it normally isn’t dealt with until the following Monday. Hamm said that if something does need to be reported immediately, residents can call Butler University Police Department’s dispatcher, who is available all the time and can then contact Roell and inform her of the situation.

Hamm said he is pleased with much-needed upgrades addressed in Butler’s Master Plan, such as additional dorm space and refurbishing, which will help improve housekeeping’s effectiveness.

Housing on Butler University’s campus needs an upgrade. Ranging from the silverfish in Schwitzer Hall, the dilapidated state of Ross Hall and the undeniably loud water heaters for the showers in Residential College, a little bit of improvement would go a long way.

Freshman definitely get the shortest end of the stick when it comes to housing at Butler.

President Jim Danko mentioned during his address to members of Student Government Association Assembly in the Oct. 5 meeting that he wants to improve the condition of housing on Butler’s campus, and I couldn’t agree more.

Sure, there is a certain charm to old housing. It has a homey feel and the idea that so much history happened within it.

It has its drawbacks, though.

Ask anyone who has lived in Schwitzer in the past few years.

It is my hope that President Danko takes the initiative to repair our residence halls. They don’t need to be torn down and rebuilt in a fashion so modern that the Jetsons would be confused, but they do need to be better maintained.

After all, living in less glamorous conditions makes students that much more grateful when they get to live in a nice apartment, or rent a swanky house.

When students look back on their dormitory days, they shouldn’t be appalled at the dilapidated quality of the buildings they once called home, even if only for a short period of time.

“I remember on one of my first tours, I walked into one of the dorms that was built in the 50s and I quickly realized that I was also built in the  50s,” Danko said at SGA. “I know I need to be worked on every now and then.”

If Schwitzer, Ross and ResCo were improved in even the slightest capacity, it would greatly improve the living experience for underclassmen at Butler.

Freshman and sophomore residence halls aren’t designed to be glamorous and, frankly, I don’t expect them to be. What I do expect is that the quality of life in freshman residence halls becomes a bit better. Sinks in Schwitzer should not back up when used too often, and the showers should provide a consistent temperature instead of being either toe-numbingly cold or scalding hot.

While living in the Apartment Village, it is strange to think back through my residence hall days. I’ve lived in Schwitzer, with its occasional silverfish sightings and shoddy bathrooms, then ResCo, with its convenient, yet unpredictable elevator, slightly bigger rooms and disturbingly small showers. Now I’m living in the Apartment Village, which has private rooms, a pantry and a shower that can double as a bathtub if I so desire.

The prospect of better residence halls for freshmen is exciting, even if I won’t get to experience the benefits.

Perhaps a new president can bring the kind of architectural change this university has needed for years.