Record class hits campus
August 28, 2014
By Anne Halliwell
A large freshman class led UK to offer apartment housing to upperclassmen who had planned to live in dorms, reopen Blazer Hall and room resident advisers with residents.
UK expected 4,800 new students to arrive in the fall, about 100 more than last year, UK spokesman Jay Blanton said.
In the last few months, it became clear to the university that the actual number would be closer to 5,200. A team of senior adminstrative leaders was created to ensure that registration, housing, classrooms and advising were prepared, Blanton wrote in an email.
UK Housing fit 90 beds in Blazer’s third-floor rooms, said Penny Cox, the university’s director of housing project implementation and new strategies.
Blazer was planned to be closed to students after the 2013-2014 school year.
Biochemistry freshman Nnenna Chukwudolue moved into Blazer Hall on Aug. 16.
“The power went out, I think, three times,” she said. “And the wifi goes out all the time.”
Tamara Stallins, an interdisclipinary early childhood education senior, moved in to her second year in Blazer on Saturday without use of the elevator. She agreed that the internet was difficult to access.
Blazer residents may be experiencing internet issues while work on the second floor connectivity closet continues, Cox said, and added that while internet may be spotty, it’s being addressed.
Blazer Hall will not house students during the spring semester, Cox said, but will transition those residents to space freed up by study abroad students.
In order to free up space in the dorms, UK offered rooms in the Royal Lex and University Trails apartment complexes to upperclassmen at the same cost as a room in Kirwan or Blanding towers.
More than 600 upperclassmen received emails to fill 320 rooms in the two apartment complexes, said Cox.
RAs have also been assigned to live with residents on their floors, freeing up another 125 beds, Cox said.
The university’s first goal was ensuring all incoming freshmen had access to the guaranteed on-campus housing, Blanton said.
“There are certainly challenges associated with growth,” Blanton wrote in the email. “But there are more challenges, and much bigger issues, associated with a class size that is smaller than planned for in any given year.
