Back to school! While some Fort Lewis students were making sure they had their backpacks ready to go, others were making sure they had somewhere to sleep.

In August, some Fort Lewis students had to stay in a hotel, even though they were already registered for housing. Too many students were registered for housing, in comparison to the capacity of the buildings, according to the Fort Lewis housing department. 

“It is typical of every year for more people to request housing than is available,” Brett Polen, the associate director of residence life and residential education, said. Usually, there are enough cancellations by the time school starts, but this year's retention of students has been higher, he said. 

Cody Eickholt, a first-year engineering student, was one of the students who ended up spending his first nights of the semester in the Spring Hill Suites Hotel in Durango. 

“When I arrived at the hotel, the parking lot was full of students. You could just tell by the parking passes for campus,” Eickholt said. For him, it seemed like the school had about 50 rooms at the hotel, most with two people living there, he said. (Polen cited a smaller number.)

The college’s Student Housing Department called Eickholt a few weeks before coming to campus to let him know he was going to be placed in temporary housing, Eickholt said.

Even though Eickholt is a first-year student, this is his second semester on campus. If this had been his first time in Durango, this would have been a more stressful experience, he said. 

“Getting placed in a hotel, and then getting a room assignment, so then you’re with a roommate, taken away from that roommate, and put with a new roommate,” he said. 

Eickholt was placed at the Spring Hill Suites while waiting for a spot to open on campus, he said. This was completely covered by the school, he says, to not have received any extra charges or discounts. 

The housing department staff was not sure how long this situation would last, he said. He ended up being there a week, Eickholt said. 

 

When did all of these housing applications come in?

 

The housing department noticed in early summer that they were going to have an overflow, Polen said. Housing will accept every student application, unless they have a history of violations of conduct, Polen said. When lacking space in buildings, applicants will be put on a waitlist, said Polen.

The number of cancellations and applications changed hourly, so they couldn't plan for anything, Polen said. Three weeks before school started, college housing staff started looking into hotels, and two weeks before, they informed any students who would be placed in temporary housing, Polen said. They got their official temporary housing assignment around three days before move-in day, Polen said.

In total, there were 62 students placed into temporary housing during the beginning of this school year, including 28 students housed in hotel rooms, Polen said. The school also put three students in two-person dorm rooms, asked them to share rooms with a residential assistant, or in dorm lobbies turned into three-person rooms, Polen said.

“The only students that were placed in the hotel are returning students, so students who have already spent a year here,” Polen said. 

The hotel rooms, just as the dorms on campus, had a residential assistant on the floor, Polen said. (Some assistants even offered other students rides to campus in the mornings, Liz Hatch, a residential assistant, said.)

It’s a standard practice for many colleges to use hotels as a solution to the need for more rooms, Polen said.

“Almost everybody is going through this issue,” Polen said. 

Titan Toyekoyah, a junior in music education, also started the semester at Spring Hill. 

The school informed him about eight days before move-in day, according to emails shared by Toyekoyah. His roommate in the hotel was also in his first year attending Fort Lewis, and they had a third roommate for the first two days who slept on the couch provided in the room. Everyone was moving out at different times, he said. 

He was not worried about a spot opening up for him on campus, he said.

“There are more people than you would think who just come here for a week to party,” he said.

Housing estimated he would be there for two to three weeks, and he ended up being there a little under two weeks, said Toyekoyah.

After being given a permanent assignment, he had two days to move out of the hotel, Toyekoyah said. If he had been a first-year student, this experience would have been different.

The “illusion would have been broken,” he said, especially regarding the expectations of what college is for new students. He feels indifferent, having been here for a couple of years.

“This isn't anything new,” he said.

Maddison Bower, a second-year accounting student, was not staying at the Spring Hill Suites, but she also had some worries regarding housing. 

Bower didn't see an official statement from the housing department about the temporary housing and the hotel situation. It was off-putting to hear about it through rumors among students, they said. It felt like a lack of transparency, she said.

“I’m not sure that a broad email to all residents would answer everybody's questions that they have or make them feel better,” Polen said. 

“I feel like they talk about being open, but especially when something goes wrong, like - you really don't hear about that,” Bower said.

More disclosure is needed, she said. 

The only major issue Bower is anxious about this coming year regarding housing is the situations with lousy neighbors, which have already presented to be an issue less than a month into school, Bower said.

“If anybody is concerned, they're welcome to come and have a conversation with us,” Polen said.

Whenever there's a housing question, Bower said they find the residential assistants’ schedules being posted on their door to be helpful to find solutions, find a mediator, and someone to ask questions. As a resident of Escalante, they feel very safe, especially now that they've added peepholes to all rooms.

 

“It was a pretty nice set-up.”

 

It seemed like there was a massive number of students this semester who needed on-campus housing, Eickholt said. Housing can be very expensive off campus. 

Eickholt said that after a week of being at the Spring Hill Suites, most people were gone, and he was overall content with his experience and felt safe. 

Spring Hill was the chosen hotel because it offered “most rooms at the best price,” Polen said. The price was similar to housing costs at Cooper Hall, Polen said. 

Some of the perks that Eickholt mentions of being at the hotel were the access to a gym and pool, as well as utilities in the room, like a microwave, minifridge, television, and room service every few days. 

Continental breakfast was offered, and free laundry was available as long as people brought it back to the dorms, Eickholt said. 

Having control over the room's temperature and a queen-size bed to sleep on was really great, even with the biker convention happening outside, Toyekoyah said. 

To Eickholt, it felt like housing tried to make it as nice as possible for the students in this situation, Eickholt said. 

“I’m not complaining,” he said. “Personally, it was a pretty nice setup.”