During the fall of 2024, junior Lily Seifferlein studied abroad in Cambridge, England. Because of her time off-campus, her housing application for the spring semester was separate from the one most of the student body had filled out the previous spring.
Because of how full the dorms were, Seifferlein was offered either a room in Trusheim Hall, or a room in Concordia Hall, the most expensive dorm on campus, at $4,525 for a single room for one semester.
“Although it all worked out, I would have been put in a tough place if the few options they offered me weren’t ones that worked out financially or situationally,” said Seifferlein.
The CUC housing department has faced vacancies in important staff roles, making it difficult for students to figure out who to talk to to get their issues resolved.
Lydia DePatis, who handles the dorm management software called StarRez, explained that when students study abroad, they indicate this in the housing portal so that their room is only reserved for one semester for the fall, or they fill out the housing application in October or November when it opens for the spring semester.
“We typically have between 5 and 10 spring students, so it’s a very small amount,” DePatis said.
However, students reported that issues were still occurring.
Junior Ruth Eatherton also recently returned from a fall semester in England. She was unable to pick which specific room she wanted to live in, but was rather emailed with her assigned room information during late fall.
Additionally, while she was abroad, CUC tried multiple times to charge Eatherton for on-campus dining.
“Hopefully they change this in the future, so that studying abroad is encouraged and people don’t have to worry about having somewhere to live,” Eatherton said.
“There is not really a strong system in place to factor in study abroad right now,” said Alex Coile, who recently joined CUC as the new director of residence life. “This summer I intend to look into ways to improve this process for these students.”
While the director of residence life role was vacant, Dean of Students Kathy Gebhardt absorbed more roles within the housing department. At the same time, DePatis and the residence directors (RDs) all tried to fill in the gaps in service where they could, Gebhardt said.
When a student emailed the housing department, DePatis and the RDs all had access to the inbox, and errors might have occurred when one person did what they thought was best but wasn’t what had been done in the past, Gebhardt said.
“Giving feedback is always super helpful to us,” said Gebhardt. “We always want to hear the good stuff, but we also need to know when there is not-so-good stuff so we can fix it or change things.”
According to DePatis, the housing department receives a returning housing goal from the chief of finance, the president, and other vice presidents at CUC. The admissions department sets the housing goal for new students, and the returning student goal is taken from previous years’ data on how many students return, and how many transfer out.
Once the housing department totals the estimated number of students who will likely need beds on campus the following semester, the staff pushes out the applications, sends reminders, and shoots for this goal.
CUC has a three-year residency requirement, but some seniors live on campus as well, and this number is factored into the equation, according to Gebhardt.
CUC hosts many Triton College students and, in the fall of 2024, had more living on campus than they had expected. Though CUC still has to review its contract with Triton, it is expected that Triton students will live in CUC’s dorms again for the upcoming school year.
Coile plans to have a fixed number of Triton students on each floor, as opposed to a floor of just Triton students, placing them in the rooms at the end of each hall so they more fully integrate with CUC students.
Coile holds a Masters in Divinity from Asbury Theological Seminary, which he hopes to put to use in his new position at CUC. He hopes to work to bridge the gap between residential life staff and the faith delegates on each floor.
“We want to improve the holistic development of students as opposed to just providing them with a room and a bed,” said Coile.
