This story was jointly reported by WGLT and The Vidette, a student-run media outlet at Illinois State University.
As Illinois State University celebrates its largest incoming class of first-year students, some students say they feel a disconnect between the positive messaging and their experiences on a crowded campus.
The annual enrollment report following the 10th day of classes showed 4,285 first-year students came to ISU this fall. Total enrollment is also up by 2.7% at 21,546. In an era of forecasted enrollment declines, it's good news for the institution.
But as ISU welcomed those students to campus, it's also had to figure out how to house the influx of freshman and sophomores who are required to live on-campus. ISU's incoming class this year was 20% bigger than it was a decade ago, but the university hasn't not built any on-campus student housing during that time.
That’s partly due to budget constraints: Original plans for a new on-campus residence hall, first reported by WGLT in 2019, have since been scrapped partly due to "significant increases in construction costs," said ISU President Aondover Tarhule.
Spokesperson Chris Coplan said ISU is "considering creative options for various partnerships to address the need for additional campus housing."
In the meantime, many students this year are living in rooms that are not meant for as many occupants as there are in the dorms. Doubles have been made into triples, triples have been made into quads, and in some cases, lounge rooms are being used to house students.
“Personally, I feel like it can get a little crammed at some times because technically we are supposed to be living in a triple that [ISU] made into a quad and four girls in a living space that small can get difficult and can cause some issues sometimes,” said freshman dietetics major Keira Corey.
Freshman Spanish education major Anthony Tomayo said he feels lucky compared to some: While he'd arranged to have one roommate in a double room at Watterson Towers this year, an additional roommate was added to the mix over the summer to accommodate housing needs.
"In mid-June, the university told everyone, 'Hey, we're fully booked. Everyone's in triples now.' And so then we had to talk about what we wanted to do, if we wanted to move buildings, or if we just wanted to find a third guy in, like, a day. And we did, and it worked out really well for us. But I get that a lot of people weren't able to be as lucky as us," he said, adding the room he occupies, originally built for two people, is “really cramped already.”
"We're doing alright, but it is already pushing it," he said.
Tomayo also feels lucky to have an actual room: In three residence halls across campus — Hewett, Manchester and Watterson Towers — lounges were converted into makeshift dorm rooms to accommodate the influx of students.
Coplan said the situation fared better than ISU expected: Lounges were initially set up to accommodate up to six students, but "ultimately, we did not need to fill these spaces to that capacity and lounges were reduced to four-person lounges prior to opening the residence halls."
At the time of the statement, lounges had been cleared out in Hewett and Manchester, but still remained in Watterson Towers.
But that provides little comfort to students who feel their living spaces have been unnecessarily tight. Tomayo said the influx of people at Watterson Towers has made daily tasks take longer than usual.
"It's so hard to find a bathroom that no one's using. It's hard to get an elevator to yourself. There's always a line for the package room — constantly. I've had to stand [in a dining hall] for 10 minutes because there's literally so many people there," Tomayo said. "It's been a struggle to just get some time to yourself, or some time alone, just because there's so many people."
Corey echoed the frustration.
“You don't really get a lot of alone time. So I feel like if you are struggling with… things, you'll need your own space, which is just not not available at Watterson,” she said.
Tomayo said he would have liked to have seen room and board rates adjusted to reflect the additional roommates students have as a matter of fairness, but ISU housing policy is to charge based on the size of the room occupied, not how many people occupy it.
ISU policy also requires students who are “in their first two years out of high school” to live on-campus, either in its residence halls or at Cardinal Court apartments. Coplan said requests for exemptions to the policy “this year were about the same as the year prior, we believe again indicating that our students want to remain on campus.”
Angeline Manalo, a freshman film and digital media major, said she feels a disconnect from the university’s positive messaging about high enrollment figures.
“I feel like they shouldn’t be celebrating yet," she said. “It’s good that they are accepting more people, but before they decide to accept more people, they need to make sure they have enough housing to accommodate everybody.”
