Rose Avenue eliminates trend of overflow housing

Rose Avenue Residence Hall, IU’s newest residence hall, opened its doors to students this weekend.

The facility will house 440 residents, predominantly freshmen, in the building located at Rose Avenue and Jones Drive.

The new dormitory has eliminated the need for overflow housing on campus for the first time in nine years, said Sara Ivey Lucas, Assistant Director for Housing Assignments for IU Residential Programs and Services.

In recent years, the number of students in overflow housing has decreased dramatically, from 272 in 2009 to 94 in 2012.

“Because we got Rose open, we added 440 beds to our housing inventory,” Lucas said. “Usually we were having a couple hundred students in lounges. We’re back to where we used to be, so that gives us enough space to be full but not over-full.”

The dormitory provides several rooming options for students, with clusters of four double rooms with a shared bathroom, two-person suites with shared baths and single suites with private baths.

The rooms and bathrooms are controlled by card access and are assigned to each resident to provide extra security. Public restrooms will also be available on each floor for residents’ guests.

As of Fall 2014, Rose will house a living-learning center associated with the School of Education.

Melanie Wolfe is a desk clerk and Welcome Week assistant at Rose, and has been living in the building for a week and a half. She said the new facility is spacious, and she was impressed by the size and quality of the rooms.

“There are people that have singles with a private bath, and those are a lot larger,” she said. “The double rooms are also a lot bigger than any of the doubles I’ve seen.”

Each of the rooms are fully furnished and provide air conditioning, cable television and wireless Internet. Laundry is included for residents, with eco-friendly washers and dryers onsite.

Because of the extra space and amenities, the price to live in Rose will be slightly higher compared to other dorms on campus.

“The rates are in what we call our enhanced housing category, along with Willkie and Union Street and Briscoe,” Wolfe said.

With the additional amenities, students can expect a rate of almost $1,000 more per year than that of other residence halls.

The Rose double room is $7,049 for the academic year, and the singles with the shared bath are $7,810, Wolfe said.

“That puts it just above a double room in McNutt or Teter,” she said.

The $38 million facility is part of the Association of College and University Housing Officers-International 21st Century Project, a multi-phased effort to reinvent student housing on campus.

Lucas said that the CUHO-I held a competition for schools across the nation to receive access to architects and planning for the new buildings. After several rounds of budgeting and planning, IU won its division.

Building construction was completed on time, Lucas said, and the facility will undergo assessments periodically to ensure that everything is running smoothly.

“We will have some evaluation and assessment things that we have to hit over the next five years to let other college campuses know what’s good and what’s bad,” Lucas said.

Wolfe said that the newness of the dorm adds to the exciting atmosphere of Welcome Week.

“It’s brand-new, so it’s a fresh start,” Wolfe said.