Housing still a concern

If it weren’t obvious by the scarcity of seats in the dining hall, then it certainly was more than evident that the number of freshman accepted and enrolled by Winston-Salem State University was well above past averages when some people found themselves short of a place to live during the first week of school.Whether it was because of late deposit payments, failure to notify the school of plans to attend in the fall, or financial ailments beyond one’s control, many WSSU students found themselves without on-campus housing for the 2003-2004 school year. Jorge Tillman was one of them.Tillman, a junior sports management major, said he applied for housing in January because he didn’t attend the university last semester. He attended the first session of summer school and was told that he’d have housing in Brown Hall. Tillman said he didn’t receive any information about his housing until “two weeks before school started when I contacted the school.” He said he was told that he would not have any housing on campus and the suggestion was made that he might want to stay at Center Stage, an apartment complex located at the North Carolina School of the Arts.There was just one problem with that- transportation.”Without my cousin, Perron Sullivan (a freshman), who happens to stay at Center Stage also, I would not have any transportation,” Tillman said Tillman lives in an apartment that has a full kitchen, two bathrooms, two bedrooms, a living room, a washer, and a dryer. There are four people living there who are each paying $375 a month, and live two to a room. “The first day of school, we had to take three people to school,” Tillman said. “They were freshmen.” Had it not been for Tillman and his cousin, the freshman would have had to make due by walking about a mile and half to each school, averaging thirty minutes. Linda Inman, the director of housing and residence life said that although there are still students in temporary housing, the numbers are getting smaller.”The process is going very well,” Inman said. “The initial 89 assigned to temporary housing have been housed. Currently there are 33 individuals in temporary housing, 22 females and 11 males.”Inman said that those who were informed that they’d have to wait for permanent housing were told that the process could take anywhere from one week, to two weeks, to a semester. For those who still have not been housed, Inman said that the Office of Residence and Life has been “aggressively looking for permanent housing,” and “realize the inconvenience, but want them to be assigned as quickly as possible.”Inman made an assurance that the housing office does not make any revenue off of temporary housing payments. Students in temporary housing in Wilson Hall pay $15 a week to each person in the suite, totally $60 a week. The sleep on cots in the living room where all of their belongings remain packed up for the most part.Since enrollment is slated to increase every year, a plan for an addition to Rams Commons is in the works. Until then, Inman said that housing is considering the possibility of expanding spaces in Wilson Hall and in Rams Commons, possibly making room for two to a bedroom in the newest apartment style dorms.”Right now we’re trying to do some helpful things and be as customer friendly as we can.”