Residence life to host meetings for students

With a new Strategic Plan set to be implemented at TLU, the Department of Residence Life is working to see what renovations students would like to see come to the living facilities on campus. Kyle Wych, director of residence life, will be holding meetings where students can come and tell him what changes they would like to see. Meetings were held Tuesday and Wednesday, with more to be held Thursday, Jan. 28 in Clifton at 8 p.m. and Seguin Hall at 9 p.m. and Tuesday, Feb. 2 at 9:30 a.m. in conference rooms A and B in the ASC. "The biggest thing I am going to be doing over probably the next three or four weeks is having signs put up in the residence hall and apartment areas to just come talk to me about what type of facilities they would like to live in," Wych said. Wych has held such meetings in the past with great success. Wych encourages students to not ignore such a unique opportunity and to bring in any ideas they have. The meetings are an open forum. "[Nothing] is too outlandish from what we can incorporate into a building. While there are no guarantees, a lot of things can happen," Wych said. "I have an idea what students want, but that changes from year to year."

Students are the crux of the impending renovations having a positive impact on TLU.

Students are aware of the shortcomings of the current residence halls and apartments.

"If they were nicer," Kaitlin Willet, freshmen biology major and Baldus resident, said, "people wouldn't go home on the weekend."

Poor facilities not only push people away from campus but also diminish their potential to be successful.

"In the residence halls, people are actually living there," Meredith Price, senior youth and family ministry major and apartments resident assistant, said. "If you're not comfortable and accommodated in your home, it is going to be really hard for you to be productive."

This outlook is shared by students and faculty alike.

"Students who are comfortable and happy with where they live are going to do better in class," Alicia Boone, apartments area coordinator, said. "If we had maybe newer, more current facilities, we would probably have more students living on campus."

Another aspect Wych wants to analyze through the interest meetings and examination of current buildings is the communal atmosphere. This is where the apartments become a point of focus because, according to Wych, the present layout lacks any sense of community-building and interaction.

The focus, however, is not on the apartments alone.

"Hahn definitely need some help," Boone said. Wych is just as aware of this fact as he is of a need for change in the apartments.

"I would hope and pray that within three years we would have some type of, if not new facility, then a renovated facility, in terms of Kraushaar and Hahn," Wych said.

Ideas for what the new and renovated buildings may hold are already stirring in the TLU community.

According to Boone, study rooms and social lounges would provide great benefits to students. Willet would like nicer floors which are not as cold.

All of this optimism and potential will fail if students do not come to share their ideas at the meetings.

"I firmly believe that students should never complain about something unless they're willing to do something about it," Boone said.

Wych's meetings are the students' arena to do exactly that.