USF Forecast: Sunny With a Chance of New Dorms

Tanya Dzekon
Staff Writer

A brief of ASUSF Senate’s recent meetings

USF plans to build a new residence hall, a new academic building for the Arts, and new athletic facilities, alongside other projects, as part of a 20-year development plan. Peter Novak, the Vice Provost of Student Life, presented USF’s Institutional Master Plan (IMP) at a Senate meeting on November 19.

The San Francisco Planning Department requires educational institutions to submit an IMP every 10 years to inform both city officials and the public about future facility and site plans on campus and their impact.

According to the IMF, USF’s housing quality is not competitive with many peer institutions. In 2011, the dorms accommodated only 38% of USF students. The new student housing would accommodate a higher percentage of students on campus and provide more housing options.

Novak said that the new dorms will probably be located where the ROTC building is now, and the new Arts building will either be placed below it, or in a new building that the university would purchase nearby.

The only obstacle to the development project is opposition from the neighbors.

The University Terrace Association (UTA), a neighborhood group, is concerned that the construction plans will increase the student population and consequently create traffic and parking problems. They are asking USF to prepare an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) before constructing a new residence hall. The EIR could take up to a year to create, which would hold off the project.

In 2010, the same neighborhood group appealed USF’s plan to construct the John Lo Schiavo Science Center because of similar concerns. In early 2011, the Foghorn reported that a compromise — limiting construction hours and improving long-term communication — between the UTA and USF was reached.

If an agreement is reached, Novak projected that the new residence hall will be built at least 4 years from now.

Click here read more about USF’s Master Plan

Sophomores Struggle for On-Campus Housing: New policy waitlists sophomores, prioritizes dorms for freshmen

When administrators decided to permit sophomores to live off campus last year, they viewed the move as a chance for students to accelerate their maturity at USF.

But many students have responded with disappointment and anger.

Steve Nygaard, director of the Office of Residence Life (ORL), reiterated information that was recently sent out to all USF students via email. Nygaard stated that the university “has changed the second year requirement for students to live on campus in an effort to allow these second year students the opportunity to live off campus and to create additional spaces for our first year students.”

The change in policy was announced in December and there have been various attempts to communicate the new policy to students throughout the Spring semester.

The University anticipates enrolling the same number of first-year students in fall 2011– roughly 1,175– as it did in the Fall of 2010.

The University, however, has seen an increase in enrollment over the past several years. Allowing sophomores to live off-campus may be a way to relieve the overcrowding housing issues that ORL currently faces.

ORL and the University have stressed that students will not experience any change in financial aid eligibility, unless they move home with parents or other relatives in the Bay Area.

According to one parent, some sophomores may not be “mentally prepared to deal with the great responsibilities that come with living as tenants off-campus,  nor will they get to experience the student life that they signed onto when they made the decision to come to USF.”

Nygaard noted that it is difficult to compare this year’s incoming class to those of years past because of the change in residency requirement; ORL has had to waitlist students for on-campus  housing just about every year.

Many sophomores have expressed disappointment regarding the new policy as they had anticipated living on-campus their first two years–a requirement of the old policy.

Raven Sanchez, a current freshman, is just one of many students facing this serious dilemma.  Sanchez was hoping to find housing in Phelan Hall, but was instead left with the only option of living in a single room seven blocks away from campus in Pedro Arrupe.

“Sadly, these circumstances are something I would have never wished on myself, in my second year of college,” she said, “but in comparison to many of my friends, I got lucky.”

Sanchez claimed that had she not been able to find housing on-campus, she most likely would not have been able to afford to live off campus.

Several students in this situation have asked why the university has not added more rooms for student housing, despite their ability to spend money on several renovation projects. USF Administration insists that it lacks both the resources and the space to do so. They have instead opted to alter the housing policy.

Students who are seeking guidance with housing issues have been told to contact ORL.  Sanchez said  after several attempts she was able to make contact with ORL and was told she would not be guaranteed housing.

“It was like going in a big circle,” Sanchez added.

USF is not alone in dealing with student housing shortages. Other major universities such as the University of Arizona, Northwestern, and Virginia Tech are also facing a similar dilemma.

ORL maintains that it will continue to communicate the change in policy as well as host programs to discuss tips for finding off-campus housing.

Editor-in-Chief: Heather Spellacy

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Residence Halls 411: New Visitaion Policies Take Effect

Modified rules for hosting guests in university dormitories are taking effect this semester. Though students’ awareness of these policies is relatively low, the changes are being greeted with mixed reactions by those who know of them.
The modifications most affecting dorm residents pertain to the definition of an “overnight guest,” when one may be checked in as an overnight guest and how often a resident can host such a guest.
Before there was no clear-cut definition, and the text of this semester’s Fogcutter student handbook now states an overnight stay as “being inside the residence halls for more than two hours between the hours of 2:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m.”
For example, a guest remaining in a residence hall from 3:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. and a guest staying from 7:00 p.m. the night before to 7:00 a.m. the next morning would both be considered overnight visitors.
Essentially, those hosting overnight visitors must now register their guests at the front desk of the residence hall before 7:00 p.m. on the evening of their stay.
Associate Director of Staff and Programs for the Office of Residence Life Brian Arao said, “Pre-registration requires the resident host to acknowledge that they have discussed the visit with their room and apartment-mates and secured their approval for the visit. We expect that this will reduce the frequency of roommate disputes regarding overnight guests, and provide some recourse for roommates who are negatively impacted by overnight visits to which they did not consent.”
“We [the work group] were charged with drafting a policy that is more clear, enforceable, administratively sound, socially just and consistent with the Jesuit Catholic character of USF,” said Arao. He and a member of the work group that developed the rules noted the use of student surveys and a review of the residence policies at the University of Santa Clara, when writing the revisions.
In August of 2010, the University’s vice provost for Student Development, Dr. Peter Novak, approved the revisions.
Students who have learned of the policies have expressed anything from ignorance to concern  over aspects of the guest policy both old and new.
One sophomore resident at Phelan Hall called the new rules “ridiculous,” though he admitted to not having known what the previous policy had been. He wished to remain anonymous.
Phelan Hall resident Sophie Luu was likewise not aware of any change in the guest policy. When informed, she believed the 7:00 p.m. registration rule and the 2-to-8 overnight definition was too strict.
“What if a relative flying in late at night needed a place to stay in the evening?” she asked. In her experience, dormitory hall RAs tended to be understanding; she hoped that would be the case this year as well.
“The absence of [these rules] made it difficult for residents to understand the expectations of them, and made enforcement of and communication about the policy challenging for our staff members,” Arao said. “The new policy provides the clarity that was missing in this regard.” Luu’s expectation for sympathetic RAs might be undermined by the presence of a well-defined night-stay, which gives resident advisors an easier time of enforcing the policy.
Sophomore resident Amir Mauladd seemed to have little problem with the visitation policies. “As long as [guests] keep the volume down,” he said, though he did indicate the already-existent rule limiting a resident to hosting four overnight guests per month (whether one visitor over four nights or four guests for one night, or any other combination totaling four overnight guests) insufficient.
Glenn Hogan, another sophomore resident, added, “The RAs were cool about it, though,” echoing Luu’s encounters with her past resident advisors.
For Josh Suarez, a freshman resident at Hayes-Healy Hall, the changes in policy represented a necessary security and quality-of-life measure. The issue of having room-mates consent to a surprise sleep-over guest was, for Suarez, solved by the requirement of pre-registering overnight visitors.
Still, “the 2:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. rule is inconvenient,” he said. “You can’t bring someone over to your room to study very often, especially if she is of the opposite sex.”
Xiomara Fuentes is also a freshman in Hayes Healy. Because of the fact that members of the same residence hall can move freely from floor to floor visiting members of both sexes, she believed the policy as it stands “punished the guests,” whether male or female, just for being of a different residence hall.Her concern addressed sections of the policy having to do with both the new requirement for the early check-in of overnight visitors and the old rule prohibiting overnighters of the opposite sex.
Arao said that the opposite-sex rule remained under consideration. “One of the revisions our work group proposed was removing the restriction on same-sex overnight guests. This particular proposal requires additional review by other members of University leadership to determine whether or not it can be adopted,” he said, noting the sensitivity in balancing USF’s Jesuit character with equality and fairness for all orientations.
Ultimately, Arao said the University left open the possibility of striking the restriction in the future: “While reasonable people can disagree about this matter, it is the opinion of the work group that such a change would in fact be consistent with said character.”
The tentativeness of this and other guest rules appeared to be affirmed by a sophomore front-desk worker in Phelan, who wished to have her name withheld. She recalled that the visitation policies in general, while meant to be standard rules for all residence halls to implement, “were still subject to change.”
The new overnight visitation policies are available for review online (though not in PDF form, which displays an older edition) in the Fogcutter student handbook under “Residence Life Policies, Regs, and Information.”
The policies were designed by a work group comprising representatives from the Office of Residence Life; the Office of Student Conduct, Rights and Responsibilities; the student-led Residence Hall Association; and University Ministry.

Editor-in-Chief: Heather Spellacy
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USF Experiences Blackout, Loses Power for 45 Minutes

Excited screams were heard about campus as lights and power went out at around 8:30 p.m. on Monday. The blackout impacted the main campus and law school as well as nearby houses for over an hour; however, Lone Mountain and Loyola Village were unaffected. Power flickered on several times throughout the blackout before going back on permanently at 9:44 p.m. USF Public Safety Sgt. Avery Jackson was unsure whether the power outage was a result of the rainstorm that hit Monday throughout the day.

Jackson said he and the other officers were patrolling buildings to ensure safety was maintained on campus. “Our main concern was to make sure no one was stuck in elevators,” he said. “Then we wanted to make sure law and order was maintained.” The San Francisco Police Department sent officers to assist the Public Safety officers in partroling campus buildings. According to a Phelan Hall front desk worker, there were several students stuck in an elevator during the outage, but they were lowered to safety when the power returned.

Some students took the opportunity to go for a late night stroll about the darkened campus. A group of freshmen, tired of sitting in their pitch-black residence hall, walked through Harney Plaza to enjoy some fresh air. One student strummed a guitar while singing songs, his female friend complaining that they had visited Crossroads, asked for free ice cream (that they assumed would melt before the power would turn the freezer back on), but were turned down.

One USF student told The Foghorn how she was alone in the shower in Koret when the lights went off. She was the only person in the locker room and had to stumble around in the darkness because she had left her cell phone at home, she said.

As the lights went back on, students were able to return to their residence halls and resume life as normal.