Despite current criticism of Ball State's on-campus housing situation, junior Red Squad leader Jennifer Hamman heard few complaints from freshmen and transfer students moving into residence halls this weekend.
As a Red Squad Leader, Hamman spent Thursday helping to unload car after car of belongings for students in LaFollette and Johnson Complexes.
Orientation and ice-breaker activities followed move-in, and Red Squad Leaders worked to ease the common anxieties of changing environments.
"I was just hoping my roommate was cool," said freshman Ken Haney. "My room is all right, and a lot of people are jealous of me because I live in Studebaker West and I have air-conditioning."
Freshmen Ryan Miller and Jacquelynn Rich said their LaFollette residences had been warm, but they had other difficulties moving in.
"I had a lot of trouble hooking up my computer," Miller said.
Rich said the elevator in Clevenger hall broke after she moved in.
"I was lucky because I got all my stuff moved in," She said. "But I don't know what everyone did after that."
Some students are living in quads, study lounges converted into dorm rooms, to accommodate four people.
Miller is not one of those students, but expressed interest in the set-up.
"Those rooms are a little bit bigger," Miller said. "I'm kind of jealous because it would be so cool to have three roommates."
Director of Housing and Residence Life Alan Hargrave said an excess of 6,200 students moved into on-campus housing Aug. 14-18, 135 more than in 2001.
Both Johnson and Studebaker West residence halls are housing 82 students in study lounges. Hargrave said that will likely change. Ten students already have offers to move out of the lounges, he said.
Resident assistant Kate DeShaney said overall the process of moving in went smoothly for her residents. Other resident assistants in the Noyer Complex said their residents kept them on their feet.
"I spent over an hour helping these girls put their futon together, and they didn't help at all," said resident assistant Trent Shively.
Junior resident assistant Sarah Ackerman said students are bringing more than they did when she was a freshman, toting three or four carts filled with living necessities.
Shively said more students are bringing their own refrigerators and microwaves, rather than renting them from the university.
"We had some people bring two refrigerators and two microwaves," resident assistant Carla Day said.
Shively and DeShaney said many of their residents found parties and went out the first night they moved in, a practice she said was not uncommon.
"A lot of people seem to have friends from home here," DeShaney said.
The resident assistants said they laid down the law early in attempt to prevent students from getting into trouble and to protect them from possible physical danger.
"I told them the rules and that it's not my job to be their mother," Day said.
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