St. Bonaventure University welcomed the Class of 2022, the largest class it has seen in years.
With enrollment numbers upward of 560 students, the university has been forced to implement new living arrangements such as three and four-person rooms.
Nichole Gonzalez, executive director for Residential Living and Conduct, spoke about the steps the university took to shelter the unusually large class.
“We immediately began making plans to convert the east wing of first Falconio Hall back into rooms,” she said. “They used to be rooms long ago before we did the major renovation of Fal, so we just converted them back.”
Additionally, the second floor of Doyle Hall, usually consisting of double rooms for upperclassmen, was converted to triples for freshmen. This has raised mixed opinions among residents.
Jack Almond, a freshman psychology major and member of the men’s lacrosse team, offered his thoughts about living on second Doyle.
“My room is big enough for the three of us. We have one bunk bed and a single bed,” Almond said. “Lacrosse equipment is kind of a problem just because there’s not a lot of closet space.”
Marco Rivolo, a freshman management major and member of the men’s tennis team, raised his concerns about his Doyle room.
“The room is pretty big, but for three people, it isn’t enough,” Rivolo said. “I’m on the top of a bunk bed, which I don’t like. But if you have good roommates, it can be fun.”
The renovations didn’t end at Doyle. The lounges in Loughlen Hall were converted into residential spaces, the second and third floor became four-person rooms and the first and fourth floors became three-person rooms.
“The first floor used to be a triple room,” said Gonzalez. “The other floors can definitely accommodate four people. They are two whole rooms, plus a bump out.”
With the lounge space in Loughlen now gone, residents of the hall must now use the basement of Shay Hall as their lounge.
“We’re going to try to do different things with the lounge space down there to make it more comfortable and inviting for students,” Gonzalez said. “Everyone who lives in Loughlen has access to Shay and they always have, because there’s a kitchen and study space.”
Now that Bona’s has found solutions to housing this year’s recruitment class, it faces questions of what will be done if there is another large class next year.
“Right now we’re focused on the planning,” Gonzalez said. “What we have to do first is make sure we’re utilizing all of our space to the best of our ability.”
As far as tripling rooms again, Gonzalez said that will be a likely option for next year. Rivolo and Almond shared their opinions on what the university should do if they face another large class next year.
“I don’t think there is much more room to put people here, so [tripling] is the correct option,” Rivolo said.
“Maybe expand to different buildings, just to broaden the area,” said Almond. “If they did that, it could at least spread things out a little.”
Regardless of the class size Bona’s gets next year, the class of 2022 will still create housing dilemmas until they graduate. “What happened this year has a huge impact on next year,” Gonzalez said. “The juniors and sophomores coming up are all bigger classes, and then the freshmen moving into sophomores creates an upperclassmen crunch as well.”
By Jeff Uveino Staff Writer @uveinojj17@bonaventure.edu
