Taylor’s residence life program is one of the school’s characteristic features, Julia Hurlow, dean of campus life, said. The close-knit community is reminiscent of the early church.
“That's one of the hallmark features of Taylor, is to live in proximity and to live on campus,” she said. “So how can we help people thrive, to create a community that works for them?”
The Residence Life team tries to give students the opportunity to speak into the housing process, Hurlow said. They talk with students and work to find them a place to thrive.
New students also fill out housing cards before they come to Taylor. The Residence Life team sorts these housing cards by hand. They print the information each freshman provides: bedtimes, cleanliness, sports, interests and more, to physically match people, Hurlow said.
Even so, housing is stressful for many students, Grace Kendall, a sophomore math education major, said. Early deadlines are stressful because they require students to predict quickly if they want to be with the same people and in the same environment for the next school year.
Many of these decisions are dependent on people whose plans for the next year, such as studying abroad, aren’t finalized yet, she said.
False rumors about housing are creating confusion and disappointment among students, Hailey Lyon, residence life housing coordinator, said. One example is within student housing.
“Student teachers and social works, they automatically are approved for off-campus housing, but they're not given priority in the apartment approval process,” Lyon said. “…there's confusion there. So, apartment approval is only based off of the group's average number of completed credit hours. It's not based on factors like whether or not you are student teaching or have an internship off campus.”
The housing office tries to eliminate confusion by making information about housing easily available, Lyon said. There is an FAQ on MyTaylor under Campus Life.
This year, the apartment application was open Nov. 3 through Nov. 9. Apartment squatting took place on Nov. 11, and room draw is Nov. 18.
Room squatting for residence halls will be on Feb. 11 and 12. Room draw will be on Feb. 17. Housing deadlines are earlier this year because residence life received a request for housing analytics to be provided to different departments earlier, Lyon said.
There are a lot of different departments who need to know who lives where, she said. As campus grows, this information is needed earlier.
Though figuring out housing is stressful for students, Kendall said she understands the hard work housing does.
“Housing gets a lot of criticism,” she said. “I've seen them working really hard, and I know that they do, they make all their decisions for a reason, like they're not trying to make our lives difficult, they're trying to make it better. So I know that, like the difficulty and stress of this isn't because they just want to add hard things. It's just, it's gonna be hard no matter what.”
