On Saturday, Aug. 19, orientation leaders, student volunteers and resident staff members helped around 400 Augusta university freshmen move into area hotels and apartment complexes.
The housing is temporary, necessitated by incomplete repairs to a university dorm damaged by floods in the spring semester.
Flooding on Oak Hall’s fifth floor resulted in the Augusta Fire Department deeming it unfit for occupancy on July 28. That meant Augusta University had to relocate students assigned to the dorm in various off-campus housing sites.
An earlier article in the Augusta Press reported that the flooding at Oak Hall was apparently caused by two students roughhousing in a common area, which resulted in a broken pipe that was not immediately repaired.
With a total of 1,150 freshman students having enrolled for the fall term, about one-third of the incoming freshman class will now be housed across four hotels and three apartment complexes. Students are housed at The Partridge Inn, The Row Apartments, Beacon Station Apartments, the Crowne Plaza, the Augusta Marriott in downtown Augusta, a Holiday Inn Express and Millhouse Station.
With about 80 students being housed at The Row Apartments, Augusta University President Brooks Keel and Provost Neil MacKinnon said staff worked to separate students based on their majors in order to encourage natural relationship building between roommates and classmates.
With most of the freshman events typically being organized on the Health Sciences Campus near the dorms, MacKinnon, who is also the executive vice president for Academic Affairs, said his staff is working to ensure student life and engagement within the different housing areas by inviting department deans to host college events for the freshmen.
“We tried to be very intentional as far as grouping students together. Just for example, one of the groups of students that will be at The Row is the honors community, and that’s just natural students who are already going to be taking classes together,” he said. “So all seven offsite properties we’ve kind of grouped students into themes … what we’re trying to do is still build a sense of community even though they’re not on campus.”
Corvias, the company that owns and operates Oak Hall, is still unsure of the total cost estimate for the various repairs to floor board, elevators, ceiling tiles and water pipes. With extra costs being put towards more police patrols and security guards, as well as extra shuttles, Keel said the university has also not determined how these alterations will affect spending and the year’s budget.
A multitude of welcome events, such as the traditional Freshman Convocation, have also been postponed until all housing issues have been resolved. With classes having started this past Wednesday, Aug. 16, and many freshmen not being able to attend due to the dorm disrepairs, remote undergraduates awaiting housing were forced to attend the first three days online through Zoom and Microsoft Team meetings.
“College isn’t just about what you learn in the classroom. It’s also about learning how to deal with the stress of social things, and that’s really what we’re focused on right now,” he said. “We’re going to do whatever we need to do to make sure the students have a safe and convenient experience … we really won’t know what all the total costs are until we get it all figured out at the end.”
Resident Assistant Marsha Russell, a junior student who was guiding families to the different apartment assignments in The Row complex, said she was excited for the new experience and ready to implement an off-campus community based on her past experience as resident staff.
“It’s actually going a lot smoother than I expected today,” she said.
Student parent Ted Petty said he found everyone to be very accommodating and helpful, and felt there was no reason for parents to be concerned about the alternate housing. Several parents, like Petty, said they were also not perturbed about students starting the first few days online, since they have experience with unusual situations.
“This virtual age, especially since the pandemic, that’s like second nature to them. They’re like ‘Oh, Zoom? We’re used to that,’” he said. “Augusta University made a good thing out of a bad situation … I used to work for the Florida University System and, as soon as I heard about Oak Hall, I was thinking about what an administrative nightmare it would be to move that many students, but to be able to do that successfully is a testament to the Augusta community.”
However, not all families were thrilled with the moving complications. Mother of four college students, Melissa Wooten, said she had twin students entering AU, and felt the school ignored her concerns and requests. Not only did they not allow the siblings to room together, but they are not even at the same housing site. While her son was assigned to an apartment, Wooten’s daughter, Abigail Wooten, was stationed at the Marriott hotel.
“I’m very upset with it … I think this whole thing is a piece of trash,” she said. “They separated them even though I told them I only have one car for both of them … I have asked two or three different people, and every time we went on one of those meetings online with the vice dean, we mentioned it, and I put it in the questionnaire and she did not help us. Very rude.”
Melissa Wooten said she was also not thrilled that her daughter could be stuck riding in an elevator with complete strangers who are not at all affiliated with the university.
Although the university will be providing shuttles to all the various housing locations and many reportedly have vehicles, some students shared Abigail Wooten’s concerns about getting to classes on time. Abigail Wooten said she even had trouble attending the first few days of classes because she was registered to the wrong teachers and did not have access to the Zoom meetings.
“So, now she’s already behind,” said Melissa Wooten. “I’ve been very disappointed … especially when she has an [individual learning plan], because she has a learning disability. My children use each other for help, and now they’ve separated them. One was supposed to be on the third floor and the other on the fifth, so that if she needed assistance, her brother could help her.”
While not all parents are appeased with the housing arrangements, Keel said university and city staff put in great effort to partner “at the last minute” to try and provide the best outcome possible.
“Volunteers from this university all came together to make this work, because they believe in what this university is really all about, but it also says a lot about the city of Augusta,” Keel said. “A lot of the apartment complexes and hotels said ‘Yes, we’re going to help you do whatever you need to do,’ and really stepped up; so, it just shows you not only how Augusta University values their students, but also how the entire community does, and we’re so grateful … it’s been phenomenal.”
