As a new year begins here at Loyola, bringing with it the largest freshman class since Katrina, we are left with the question of where all these students are going to live. The shutdown of Cabra Hall has lowered Loyola’s housing capacity by over 200 students – a considerable number, given how pushed for space it was with the already-growing number of students in attendance.
The housing situation was a recurring topic of discussion at the Maroon through the course of last year, with Reslife assuring us that there were a number of options on the table. To its credit, Loyola has managed to find some solutions, waiving fees for cancelling a place in the dorms, allowing Sophomores to live off-campus and renting out Privateer Place from UNO.
But even should these housing solutions completely succeed in the next week and provide students the space they need to live, the fact is that the Loyola administration has failed in its duty to its students, particularly as a school with a two-year residency requirement, by failing to address these questions in a timely manner. Loyola purposefully removed a fourth of its housing without making any serious changes to its policies or providing sufficient temporary recourse to its students, which speaks to a serious failure in administrative responsibility.
Loyola’s continual growth over the past several years, both in terms of the incoming freshman class and retention of the sophomore class, are rightfully points of pride. But this growth is now compounding a problem that would have existed even without additional students.
Besides creating a situation where incoming freshmen are likely to be overcrowded or uncomfortable – be it by increasing the number of students in Biever rooms or quartering students with Ras in Buddig – it also does a disservice to those already here, decreasing room for sophomores who are supposedly required to stay on campus. It does a further disservice to those who have scholarships that include room and board, putting them into crowded situations from which they have no real escape, and to RAs, who though already compensated have now had the value of that compensation mitigated.
Loyola’s growth is undoubtedly a good thing, and the renovations in Cabra Hall will probably prove to be of great benefit to both it and to Loyola at large. But the timing of this renovation and its execution have been very poor. If Loyola had ever presented a clear plan – shutting down Cabra Hall and temporarily increasing the number of people in rooms throughout campus, or renting a Hotel or another dorm in which to temporarily sequester its students – these flaws would simply be necessary steps towards a greater Loyola. But thus far we at the Maroon see the actions of Loyola’s administration as somewhat haphazard, scrambling to deal with an easily foreseeable problem.
This is not a case of hindsight being 20/20; this is a case of foresight being nearly absent, and the decision-making process which led to the situation being opaque. We trust that the Loyola administration will find an acceptable solution, but we suggest in the future that they open themselves up to greater discourse and provide a clearer plan so that these issues are more acceptable and clearly outlined.
This editorial is the majority opinion of the editorial board named above.
