There are more than 4,700 beds in South Dakota State University’s 18 residence halls and apartments, and after last weekend’s move-in, every one of them is taken.
“All of the halls are currently full of students,” Rebecca Peterson, Director of Housing and Residential Life, said Friday.
One dorm that saw many students again is Waneta Hall, located south of Hansen Hall. It reopened to meet this year’s demand for more housing.
“Due to the increase in students and the capacity we had, we decided to open Waneta for new and returning students,” Peterson said.
Peterson mentioned that wasn’t exactly the plan at first. Students were told earlier this summer that there would not be enough room for them, but that changed. Officials decided later in the summer that there would be enough room for them if they opened Waneta.
Once that decision was made, Waneta had to go through an update before opening again. That included ordering new furniture and supplies for the hall. There were also challenges that came with opening it up.
“Hiring community assistants and making sure the staffing was appropriate were the main challenges,” Peterson said.
SDSU President Barry Dunn thanked all those involved in getting the additional residence hall ready for the new year in the weekly Monday Message.
“Thank you to Student Life Building Services, Housing and Residential Life, Facilities and Services and Information Technology for their efforts in bringing Waneta Hall back online, as without it, our residence halls would have exceeded 100% capacity,” said Dunn. “The team ensured the hall was ready and provided all the necessary amenities for our students living there. I was able to take a tour of the facility, and it looked great and will provide our students a quality living environment.”
SDSU began moving freshmen into the halls last Friday, with sophomores following Saturday, following the same practices that the university did the previous year.
“The process for move in worked well last year, so Meet State kept it like that,” Peterson said.
There were over 650 Meet State volunteers from organizations across campus including Admissions Ambassadors, The Students’ Association and various fraternities and clubs on campus. Volunteers that included community members found themselves welcoming new and returning students, coordinating and loading zones, and helping direct the flow of traffic around campus. Student organizations unloaded vehicles, loaded students’ belongings into carts, and sent them off to community assistants in residence halls to be delivered to student rooms.
“I went to check in and by the time I got to my room, everything was already in there,” said Logan Klein, a freshman architecture major from Elk River, Minnesota.
Angie Klein, Logan’s mom, said the process was well thought out from top to bottom.
“It was excellent, efficient, very organized and everyone was patient,” Angie Klein said. “It was a very welcoming environment.”
There were over 3,000 time slots scheduled between Friday and Saturday for new and returning students to use to move in. Another service on campus that is offered to students is the drop-and-go service.
“Over 600 students took advantage of the service, which has students drop off their belongings before the official move-in date. That is an increase of students using that service in recent years,” said Peterson.
Meet State was excited to see new students move in, as well as returning students, Peterson said. Students returning to campus moved in on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Madison Ross, a sophomore from Mobridge, S.D. majoring in elementary education, had a good experience when moving into her dorm.
“The move was good. It was about the same as last year. My mom and I also got two parking spots in Hyde lot, so that was exciting,” said Ross.
Paige Meyer, Ross’s mom, was experiencing different emotions outside of Ross’ excitement.
