By BRIAN BIGELOW | Staff Writer
Due to increased enrollment this semester, some APSU students will be housed in hotel rooms at the Riverview Inn until on-campus rooms become available through the inevitable “no-shows, cancellations, academic suspensions and non-payments,” said Joe Mills, the director of Housing/Residential Life and Dining Services.
“This year we stopped taking applications for all non-first-time freshmen on Aug. 10,” Mills said. “That was the first time we have done that in my 20 years at APSU.”
“We continued to take freshman applications because of freshman residency requirements,” Mills said. The Riverview Inn, located at 50 College St., only a few blocks from campus, will house 120 students affected by the housing overflow in 60 rooms reserved by APSU.
The rooms usually retail for $99 per night and consist of two double-size beds, a dresser, a television with cable and a single bathroom.
APSU is receiving a discounted rate, but the exact amount of the discount is confidential. Payment for the hotel comes out of the students’ housing fees.
The hotel has wireless Internet throughout, a restaurant, an indoor pool, and a coin operated laundry on site.
“Our goal is to make it as comfortable as possible for them,” said Mike Turner, the sales and convention services manager at the Riverview Inn. “We’ve had overflow in the past and we understand the growing pains. We’re happy to have the business and we’re glad Austin Peay has grown so much.”
As rooms become available on campus, students will be moved from the hotel into dorm rooms.
Julian Texido, a freshman physics major who will be housed at the Riverview Inn, said he was “disappointed” with the living arrangements. “They only have one dresser with four drawers; that’s not a lot of space for two people.”
Having previously attended Governor’s School at APSU as a high school student, Texido had stayed in the Harvill dormitory and said the dorm rooms there were “actually bigger than the hotel rooms.”
The Peay Pickup and Plant Shuttle will provide transportation to and from Riverview Inn, Mills said, and students with cars will be issued temporary parking passes to park in green parking zones until they are assigned a room on campus.
Gavin Fitch, a freshman music education major affected by the housing overflow, said, “The room is nice,” but, “while it has its benefits, it’s a huge drawback from living on campus,” citing concerns over the availability of transportation from campus late in the day.
According to the APSU website, the Peay Pickup stops running at 2:30 p.m., on Monday through Friday.
There are currently 1,411 beds on campus and a new residence hall is under construction on Castle Heights Road to be completed by Fall 2011, followed by the demolition of the Cross, Killebrew and Rawlins dorms.
“We will gain about 30 beds when the new housing is done and [Cross, Killebrew, and Rawlins are] torn down,” Mills said. “If enrollment continues to rise, we might experience similar issues.”
The Cross, Killebrew and Rawlins dorms will be replaced with a new 400-bed residence hall to be finished for the Fall 2013 semester.
According to the APSU Provost Tristan Denley, 9,024 students had enrolled at the APSU main campus for the Fall 2010 semester as of press time, Friday, Aug. 27 an increase of 659 students over the same date last year.
The growing pains continue to effect other branches of Austin Peay. The Fort Campbell enrollment numbers are also up by 130 students over last year.
“Because of the purges, confirmations and late enrollments, there are always some significant fluctuations … over the last few days before classes begin, and the first few days of the semester,” said Denley.
“Last year our final enrollment was 10,188. I am projecting that we will break or be very close to 11,000 (students) overall,” Denly said.
“Last year TBR schools grew on average by 4-5 percent. We grew by over 8 percent … to be growing once again in a similar fashion is quite extraordinary.”
Fall 2010 final enrollment totals will be available Nov. 5. TAS
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