To see a video on freshmen still living in temporary housing, click here.
Despite the effects of Hurricane Gustav, the department of Residential Life is successfully moving students out of kitchens and libraries and into permanent residential housing.The University turned down more than 200 housing applications this semester because of the excessive demand, said Steve Waller, director of ResLife. ResLife offers as many students as possible temporary housing each semester until the department finds permanent housing for them.  ResLife moves the residents into permanent housing in about a week, Waller said. With Gustav causing damage to the residence halls, some students’ moves were postponed.”Before Gustav, everybody was reassigned,” Waller said. “But we still have six in temporary housing.”Benton Perret, finance freshman, is one of the freshmen put in temporary housing this semester. He is still living in the library on the first floor of Herget Hall.”I applied late in June when there was nowhere to apply,” Perret said.ResLife gave Perret a permanent living arrangement the Friday before Gustav made landfall. But damage to his window caused him to be moved back into the library.”I moved to room 140 in Herget,” Perret said. “But a tree came in right through the window, so my RA told me, ‘Just go ahead and go back to the library.'”Connor Roussel, management freshman, also lived in the library. ResLife moved Roussel into a permanent room in Herget, but he has still been spending most his time in the library.”I’m in a room in Herget, but I still spend a lot of time down here,” Roussel said.Perret and Roussel said they would prefer living in the library all semester because they have gotten to know each other and have a bigger space. “They rejoiced when they found permanent housing because they want their library back,” Roussel said.Some students living in temporary housing are given the option to remain in their initial room for the entire semester, Waller said.”Two of them don’t want to move, and we don’t expect that the other four will want to move,” Waller said.ResLife permits students to remain in certain rooms because they have everything an ordinary room does. But because Perret and Roussel live in a common area of the residence hall, Waller said the department has to move them into a room as not to take away from other students.”We’re fine with them staying there because they have all the amenities everybody else has, and it doesn’t take away from the other residents,” Waller said. “We try to get them out the kitchenettes and all that because it takes away from everybody else.”—-Contact Ben Bourgeois at [email protected]