On ‘Holiday’
Nearly 100freshmen are adjusting to hotel housing.
IY ADAM BEAM
HE GAMECOCK
The fourth and fifth floors of the
loliday Inn on Assembly Street
lave been transformed into an
>ther residence hall this semester,
is the University Housing depart
nent was flooded with past dead
ine housing applications.
Eighty-eight students and four
staff members make up the two
loors, with the fifth floor being all
'emale and the fourth floor all
nale.
“I would say that definitely
nost people like it,” said fifth floor
Resident Advisor Sharmon Leb
ly. “They like having the bigger
ieds, and housing has brought in
extra dressers to suit the fact that
there are two people in the room.”
While the current arrange
ment allows for the students to
stay at the hotel for the remainder
of the semester, most of the hotel
luxuries still apply. Maid service
changes the towels and linens
once a day and does garbage pick
up once a week.
“Maintenance is really cool,”
said Jolie Hillier, an Ohio native.
“Yeah, they bring in, like, toi
let paper and whatever,” said Mar
garet “Meg” Strimpfel, from
Hilton Head, S.C. “And they clean
too. They’ll sweep and stuff. The
only thing thatl think that stinks
is the laundry, because we have to
be shuttled [to some washing ma
chines] or we can go up to Moore
and use [the one there].”
“They do that basically to keep
up their own health codes,” said
Lebby. “But that is pretty much
all they are doing. We don’t get
room service or anything like
that.”
Housing staff, along with the
Ras, has done all they can to cre
ate as much of a college dorm en
vironment as possible.
There has already been a hall
meeting, and downstairs the Holi
day Inn has set aside a study room.
“I wouldn’t know the differ
ence between this and a dorm,”
said Strimpfel. “I guess it feels the
same. There are people walking
around, talking, coming in and
I_I
Rosanne Williams, a first-year student majoring in history,
relaxes in her new “dorm” room on the fifth floor of the
Assembly Street Holiday Inn. photo by aaron hark
hanging out. It’s not that differ
ent.”
Pictures and posters are still
allowed, but hotel staff has asked
that students not drill holes in or
use tape on the walls. Also, quiet
hours are “more strictly enforced”
out of respect to the hotel’s paying
guests.
- “We’ve tried to explain that to
them (the students) and they real
ly don’t seem to have a problem
with it,” said Lebby. “They seem
to be doing very well and the ho
tel staff is very pleased with their
behavior.”
A spokesperson from Holiday
Inn remarked that they are “tick
led to death to have (the students)
here. It’s a great situation for all
of us and we are glad to have this
opportunity to work with the Uni
versity.”
Felipe Chaves, a transfer stu
dent from Brazil, had his doubts
about staying in a hotel.
“At first, I thought it was
strange, and maybe even a prank,
because they had just assigned me
to a Holiday Inn,” said Chaves.
“But everybody likes it. Who
wouldn’t like to live in a hotel?”
Also available to students is
the opportunity to purchase a
meal plan from the hotel. Students
can purchase breakfast, dinner or
a combination plan for $505, $706
and $931, respectively.
Gene Luna, University Hous
ing Director, is pleased with how
things are going.
“It’s gone absolutely beyond
our expectations in a positive
sense,” he said. “The students
have responded extremely well,
and once the parents saw the level
of support, staff, technology and
comfort, they were extremely
pleased as well.”
The current arrangement be
tween the hotel and the university
allows students to stay for the re
mainder of the semester.
Housing opportunities might
be available from vacancies in the
Greek housing, but students will
not be forced to move out if those
openings become available.
“We’ve made a commitment to
these students that if they’d like
to stay there they can,” said Luna.
“We don’t want to break up that
community once they all get set
tled.”
New service lets students
choose roommates online
BY REBECCA WHITEHEAD
THE GAMECOCK
USC added a new Internet
feature Saturday that gives stu
dents easier access to housing in
formation.
The system, called UChoose,
offers three new features for cur
rent students. Students living on
campus can check available
rooms and coordinate roommate
swaps. Next year, incoming stu
dents will be able to view other
students’ profiles to find poten
tial roommates.
Director for Administration
of University Housing Gretchen
Koehler said the program is bet
ter for students and faculty.
“They’ve had to swap, and
we’ve had to use notebooks,” she
said. “That really didn’t meet the
needs of the students.”
For students to switch rooms,
both parties must agree to live in
the other’s room, she said.
Koehler said having student
profiles online “would empower
the students to decide what’s im
portant” in a roommate and
should prove more successful
than the lifestyle questionnaires
previously used.
“There’s nothing to predict
whether students will stay with
roommates or not,” Koehler said.
The profile feature won’t be
available until next spring be
cause it isn’t useful for students
now, she said. Profile questions
address smoking, times students
wake up and go to sleep, music
preferences and hours spent
studying a week.
Students will still need to go
to the housing office on Blossom
Street to implement any deci
sions they make with UChoose.
The program shows only what
rooms and roommates are avail
able, so students have to go to the
office with their requests to make
them official.
Residence hall coordinators
said they think it will help stu
dents with housing needs.
David Betsch, Residence Life
Coordinator for Bates West, said
students are aware of the system
and can avoid going back and
forth to the housing office. But it
will show its effectiveness once
rooms become available, he said.
“It’s a shame, because occu
pancy has been full,” Betsch said.
“I don’t know if it can be utilized
as one would hope.”
Capstone Residence Life Co
ordinator Eric Moschella said the
busy year has left little housing
available, but the system can
only help the situation.
UChoose can be accessed
through USC’s VIP Web site un
der the “Personal” tab.
USG BRIEFS
USC-Lancaster hires
new interim dean
Dr. John Catalano, a professor
of philosophy at USC-Lancaster,
has been named the branch uni
versity’s new interim dean. He
replaced Dr. Joe Pappin, who said
he will return to teaching. USC
President John Palms is confi
dent Catalano will be a "solid
leader for USC-L while the uni
versity searches for a new dean.”
Catalano began his position on
Aug. 16.
Since beginning at USC-L in
1982, Catalano has won the col
lege’s Distinguished Teacher
Award three times and the Gov
ernor’s Distinguished Professor
Award twice. He also served as
chairman of the USC Regional
Campuses Faculty Senate in 1994
and 1995.
USC graduates first
doctor of nursing
USC’s College of Nursing has
graduated its first Doctor of Nurs
ing (N.D.) student. Linda Morphis
was graduated from the program
on Aug. 11, the first student to do
so since the program began in
1999. Morphis had already earned
two bachelor’s degrees, a mas
ter’s degree in nursing from USC,
and certfication as a Women’s
Health Nurse Practitioner. Mor
phis was a nurse practitioner at
the Thomson Student Health Cen
ter between 1986 and 1995 and
joined the College of Nursing’s
faculty as a clinical assistant pro
fessor in 1995.
The N.D. program allows nurs
es to both research and practice
clinically. An N.D. can be a clini
cal leader, advanced clinical prac
titioner, clinical manager, clini
cal researcher, professor or
health care policy planner.
USC opens Ray
Bradbury exhibit
Thomas Cooper Library has
opened an exhibit on science-fic
tion writer Ray Bradbury.
The exhibit details Bradbury’s
writing career from the 1940s to
the present.
The exhibit also showcases the
first hardcover copy of his novel
Fahrenheit 451, which USC fresh
men studied for this year’s First
Year Reading Experience. Also
included in the exhibit are
posters advertising Bradbury’s
work, poems, essays, children’s
stories and adaptations of his
works as videos and comic books.
The collection, which belongs
to Anne Hardin of Beaufort, is on
the mezzanine level of the li
brary.
Whaley's Mill Apartments
Come in today!
• Walk to USC
• Roommate Matching Services
• Flexible Leasing
Definitely Not Run of the Mill
211 MAIN STREET
Across from the College of Engineering
AT USC
254-7801
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