Residence Hall Living
Written by Shen Wu Tan
There are a total of 18 residence halls on the WSU campus. While most of the residence halls are co-ed, a few of the residence halls are all male or all female halls. McCroskey is the only international themed hall with a plan to become Gender-Inclusive during the 2015-2016 academic year. Many of these halls consist of various floor and room plans. For a majority of the residence halls, the floors have both single and double rooms; a couple of the halls have rooms that are set up as suites. The halls all have communal kitchen, restroom, and laundry room spaces.
Due to large incoming freshmen classes, newer residence halls have been constructed in the past few years. Northside, Olympia, and Community Duncan-Dunn are some of the newly built or recently renovated residence halls on campus. Northside part 2, now officially titled "Global Scholars Hall," is currently being constructed on Colorado Street. The architecture plan of the hall is supposed to be the mirror image of Northside hall. Global Scholars Hall is expected to open up next fall semester.
As a previous Resident Advisor and current Assistant Hall Director, there are many pros and cons to living in a WSU residence hall. All of the residence halls are located on campus and, therefore, are all within walking distance to
classes. Another perk is the sense of community that a residence hall can foster. As a resident, you are sharing a floor with 30 to 60 other students and have the opportunity to make so many different connections. However, because you are sharing a community living space, your privacy is often compromised. In addition, students often feel that the high costs of living in a residence hall and paying for a meal plan does not compensate for the convenience of location and the sense of community. It can easily cost over $10,000 for housing and dining fees per year. If a resident wants to purchase an RDA meal plan, the student needs to pay a base charge of $944 in addition to the RDA dollars. For example, if a student wants $900 in RDA, then the student has to pay $1,844 to use the meal plan. After their first year, many students will move into apartments or houses on-campus or off-campus.