An Overcrowded Campus

Boston University’s usually packed fall semester has been especially crowded due to the influx of 320 students from Tulane University studying, eating and living on Commonwealth Avenue. While the university may feel overcrowded, administrators say BU is not overenrolled.

“This isn’t even the highest number [of students] ever,” said BU spokesman Colin Riley, attributing that fact to BU becoming increasingly selective.

Despite that, this semester has seen students having a noticeably more difficult time finding a booth in the Warren Towers dining hall, a couch to study on or a spot in required classes.

Where that crowding can start is in over-accepting incoming freshmen. According to Riley, the Office of Admissions does an excellent job in selecting and targeting the right number of admitted applicants for the freshman class.

“The Admissions Office in particular does an outstanding job at projecting how many students to accept to fill the class,” he said. “They do acknowledge that some of it is a crystal ball.”

According to Riley, the Office of Admissions relies on past history, as well as the interest level and caliber of the applicant class to decide how many students to offer admission to.

“We’re no different from any other college,” he said.

Riley recognized the “ripple effect” that results in admitting too many students in March can have on September.

“Then you have the need for increased sections in classes for certain courses,” he said, “so [Admissions] needs to do a very good job.”

ACADEMIC OVERFLOW

For a student, the bi-annual Sunday morning login to the Studentlink can be anxiety-filled and frustrating, depending on the last digit of your Terrier card. But, BU administrators say they recognize those problems and are trying to help their students.

College of Arts and Sciences Dean Jeffrey Henderson, who said CAS was at 97 percent capacity, said having too many students can have adverse affects on the quality of education.

Henderson said he recognized that over-enrollment affects academics in multiple ways – creating classes that are too large to assure quality student attention, classes taught by part-time professors and pressure on administrative and instructional resources.

Henderson also admitted that having an excess of students can make registering for necessary classes difficult, as well as putting pressure on student advisement.

“We are doing all that we can to assure that students can take the courses they need to graduate in the major of their choice in four years,” he said in an email. “But it is a challenge.

“More and more we have had to place students in departmental rather than classroom space and we have to run more labs, with is very expensive in terms of instructor and staff effort and equipment,” Henderson continued.

Mathematics and Statistics Department Chairman Steve Rosenberg said in an email he has also noticed the increase in students, as he said his department’s enrollment has gone up about 13 percent since 1997.

Rosenberg said he has appealed to the administration for help and received it, through more sections and teachers.

As a result, since the number of tenure-track and tenured faculty has remained about the same, his department has had to hire more part-time and non-tenure-track full-time faculty to adjust to the amount of students.

“We have asked for and received more [teaching fellows] to run discussion sections,” he said. “We have asked for new faculty lines and have received some.

“CAS actually suggested turning our lecturers into full-time instructors, so that was very helpful,” Rosenberg continued. “The CAS dean understands our issues.”

CAS freshman Kristin Palardy, who is enrolled in the CAS Core Curriculum, said she has had trouble getting into some of her required classes.

“The school definitely needs to accommodate for more or less people,” she said. “Too many people is more of a problem.”

Rosenberg, however, said BU should not cut back on its acceptance of students, saying the university should hire more tenure-track and tenured faculty.

“We like teaching students,” he said.

RESERVATION REQUIRED

At 1 p.m. on a Wednesday, a passerby could mistake the line traversing down the hallway in Warren Towers for a swanky new club. A closer look reveals it is just several hungry students looking for a seat and a sandwich.

Dining Services Director Joshua Hubbard said he has noticed the increase in students this year, saying it is up slightly. However, he said he hears less complaining and more compliments.

“Probably the biggest comment that we’ve gotten is in regard to Warren Towers,” he said. “That’s more a reflection of the renovation than there is excessive population.”

As for remedying those long lines, Hubbard said he and his staff address problems in a number of ways, including looking at how stations are structured within the dining hall.

Hubbard noted that there is an interesting problem with student needs – providing speedy service with quality foods.

“We find it’s an interesting balance for us,” he said. “At the same time as people want quicker service, people are looking for greater customization, saying, ‘Can I get that burrito spicy or vegetarian?’

“We work very hard to address those situations,” Hubbard continued.

Students, however, take matters into their own hands when dining services cannot solve their problems.

College of Communication sophomore Jeff Greco said he has changed his dining habits to avoid long lines.

“We go really early now to the dining hall,” he said. “The last few hours [it’s opened] it’s really jammed.”

As for more renovations, like the overhaul done to Warren Towers over last summer, Hubbard said there were no major plans in the works.

“We’ve done minor renovations for more locations,” he said, “but nothing nearly as dramatic as West and Warren.”

BELL SERVICE

Waiting for the shuttle or being stuck in Warren or West for a second year can be irritating, and with double the amount of freshmen living in the Hyatt or Holiday Inn, many students say BU has a housing issue it cannot ignore.

According to Riley, the 140-plus on-campus residences house more students than any other independent school in the Northeast, providing a place to live for 80 percent of undergraduate students.

Couple that figure with an increase in students choosing to remain on campus, and BU residences look slightly more crowded than they have in the past.

Housing Director Marc Robillard disagreed with the premise that the university is over-enrolled, saying that while the demand for on-campus housing is largely driven by the number of incoming students, an even larger portion is affected by the demand for housing by continuing students.

According to Robillard, in 1993 the return rate for incoming sophomores was 61 percent. Last year, that number rose to 71 percent, representing an increase of 400 sophomores on campus.

As a result, many new BU students find themselves with a mailing address on Memorial Drive or Beacon Street.

According to Robillard, hotels have been in use as extended housing since 1993 except in the fall of 2001. Dormitory space leased from other colleges has also been used to satisfy housing needs.

“Hotels are used to provide additional housing as the demand for housing increases beyond our residence capacity,” Robillard said in an email. “The long term plan is to build more on-campus housing at the Student Village.”

Robillard said he plans to have all students living in hotels back on campus next semester, but for the next couple of years, he foresees BU utilizing the facilities of nearby hotels.

“Hotels are an integral part of housing,” he said. “Until we can get the next phase of the Student Village built, given the approvals and construction it will be at least three years, BU plans to keep using hotels as well as find other strategies.”

Residence Life Director David Zamojski said his department tries to provide a similar atmosphere in hotels as a regular on-campus dormitory.

“We strive to create a residence hall environment in the hotels by staffing them with resident assistants and a full-time, live-in residence hall director and by setting up residence hall associations with elected officers,” he said in an email. “The RHAs have made an excellent contribution by planning well-attended events for hotel residents.

“I think there’s something about the shared experience of living in a hotel that leads to a strong feeling of community,” Zamojski continued. “In fact, students have told me over the years that they’d rather continue in the hotel through spring semester than move because the hotel lifestyle is quite upscale.”

According to Riley, despite the fact that the number of students in hotels is twice last year’s number, the university could move students into regular dormitories two to six weeks into the semester, but chooses not to, not wanting to disrupt their academic program.

Hyatt resident and COM freshman Maria Utrera said she has not always seen Zamojski’s “sense of community” in the hotel.

“It’s better than residences,” the international student from Venezuela said, “but it’s not like Warren. They try really hard to get us together, but the setup doesn’t work to form a community.”

Utrera said overall, she enjoys living in the Hyatt despite initially being upset with her housing assignment, citing her only complaints being the shuttle bus, which takes longer on the weekends.

CAS freshman Kaitlyn Patia said it is important for BU to find some way to increase its bed count because “it doesn’t reflect well on the university” to have students living in hotels.

“It’s pretty clear that BU needs a new building to house students in or they need to stop letting so many students in, it’s as simple as that,” she said. “Students who are paying room and board money are paying to receive such, not to be shuttled from across the river. BU needs to fix this problem, and fast.”

CAS freshman Sarah Mayersohn also said BU seems to be wasting money on hotels when they could be spending it on building or renovating permanent structures.

“BU does need to either build a new dorm or buy a nearby, on-campus building to renovate into a dorm so there is more housing space,” she said. “If this is not done, then the school will continue spending money at the hotels when it could be used towards more necessary things like campus maintenance or upgrading facilities.”

Riley said housing at BU has been updated, but as with any improvements, it takes time.

“There is significant expense in taking a building that is 100 years old and doing a thorough renovation,” he said. “It’s the same as if you’re a homeowner. You can’t do it all at once.”

MORE THE MERRIER?

When not in their dorm or classrooms, many students find themselves making a trip to the George Sherman Union to eat, socialize and study.

Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore said he has definitely noticed the amount of students frequenting the GSU, especially in common areas like the one directly outside his office.

“It’s very important for people to be able to get away and have places to gather,” he said. “It’s very important to have common area space.

“The GSU is becoming more and more a living room,” he continued. “This building is used for group study while in residence halls we’ve been specific about keeping quiet.”

Elmore said while it is difficult to increase the amount of common areas in facilities, his department has made investments in activity space, including the new Sargent Student Activities Center.

And if the GSU is a living room, BU Central has become a basement playroom, providing entertainment in the form of comedians, bands and celebrity guests.

“They’re not just for entertainment,” Elmore said. “They are structured ways for people to get together.”

Elmore said he has seen an improvement in participation in student activities while many events have been sold out this semester.

“More people show up than we can accommodate,” he said. “We’re trying to adjust to student needs.”

As for the university on a whole, Elmore said he has seen the increase of students in both quality and quantity.

“The hard numbers, like SAT scores, have gone up,” he said. “But we’re being more selective.

“Our preference is to have it as small as we can keep it while not sacrificing our diversity,” he continued.

Greco said he accepted the denseness of BU, but appreciated the positives that went along with such a large school.

“In going to such a huge school, being crowded goes along with it,” he said. “The opportunities granted with the number of students outweighs the disadvantages.”