Jessica Wode

All department that will be sponsoring students to arrive on campus prior to the standard move-in dates (August 27 for new students, August 29 for returning students) are asked to complete a Department Early Arrival Request, according to Jessica Wode, residence life. Templates for making this request were sent on July 6; please contact residence life at reslife@up.edu or 7205 if they did not arrive.

Early arrival requests are due by July 29 to Wode at wodej@up.edu. Departments will be charged $42 per person per night unless it is specified that the students’ accounts should be charged. Students who are not working for any department but wish to request an early arrival for themselves should submit a Petition Form to Modify Housing contract to residence life.

For more information contact residence life at 7205 or reslife@up.edu.

The Office of Residence Life invites all faculty, staff, and students to attend their office blessing and open house on Thursday, March 19, 2:30-4 p.m., in their new location, Tyson Hall 123. Light refreshments will be provided. Contact Jessica Wode at wodej@up.edu or 7205 with any questions.

Applications for next year’s resident assistants are now available, according to Jessica Wode, residence life. Students must be upcoming juniors or seniors with a GPA of at least 3.0 and must have lived in a UP residence hall for at least one semester. Information and the online application form can be found on the residence life page at http://tinyurl.com/mpnuv2l. Applications and recommendation forms are due on January 16, 2015.

For more information, contact residence life at applyra@up.edu or 7205.

Based on feedback from a November 2013 student survey and other feedback received from students throughout the past year, residence hall staff worked over the summer to make improvements to their processes and to their physical spaces to improve the residential experience. The residence life office provided funds to each hall to make improvements based on their unique needs, including:

• In Christie Hall, the small, outdated television in the TV lounge was replaced with a 60-inch television and a sound system.
• In Corrado Hall, chalkboards in the study rooms were replaced with whiteboards.
• The front lobby of Fields and Schoenfeldt Halls was revamped with decorations, an electric fireplace, and a library collection.
• New wrought-iron furniture was added to the breezeways in Haggerty & Tyson Halls, including chairs, benches, and side tables.
• A new island for kitchen prep was added to the Kenna Hall basement kitchen.
• In Mehling Hall, new cooking and baking supplies were purchased for every kitchen space and an additional refrigerator was added to the first-floor kitchen.
• Windows were replaced throughout Shipstad Hall to help with temperature regulation.
• The staff of Villa Maria purchased a patio table and chairs and repaired their horseshoe pits.
• Washers and dryers were replaced throughout campus with brand new, high-efficiency machines.
• At move-in this year, all residents received a new T-shirt designated with their hall name, color, and logo. Every hall also brought in a team of upperclassmen to assist with new student move-in, which helped this year’s process go more smoothly and quickly than ever before.

The Office of Residence Life will be seeking student feedback again this November using an online survey. For more information contact Jessica Wode, residence life, at 7205 or wodej@up.edu.