Ashland, Ohio — Amstutz Hall is going to be housing more than just freshmen for the 2024-25 Academic Year.
Standing tall on the northwest side of Ashland University’s campus are Kem and Amstutz Hall, two buildings notorious for being historically first-year dorm halls. However, that track record is changing this year, as the AU Residence Life Office has decided to place second-year students in Amstutz Hall.
“The incoming first-year class of Fall 2023 was significantly larger than our graduating class of seniors in Spring 2024,” said AU Director of Residence Life Emily Adam.
The influx of students has shaken up the pool of student housing, directly resulting in the changes needing to be made.
“All the students who were living in the first-year halls would need to have housing assignments in the upperclassman halls, and the number of students who would be graduating and moving out of the upperclassman halls was not going to leave enough open beds for all the rising sophomores,” Adam said.
However, she said that the changes were not made without looking at an alternative option. That option would be to take away buyouts in Kilhefner Hall, a dorm building that has become a student favorite in recent years.
“We did not consider this a possible option, because there is such a high demand for buyouts,” Adam said. “We did not want to take that opportunity away from upperclassman students.”
With that being a high priority for the Residence Life Department, they ultimately landed on the opening of more rooms in Amstutz Hall.
“By opening more rooms in Amstutz, which had been offline for the last couple of years, it allows for more space for our rising sophomores, which in turn gives more possibilities for buyouts,” Adam said.
Moving forward, the Residence Life Department is still unsure whether or not this change will become permanent.
“Whether this will remain in effect after this year depends on the number of students enrolled and living on campus for Fall 2025,” Adam said. “If this mixed-population housing option is successful and creates more opportunities for buyouts, which the students are requesting, I see no reason to revert back.”
They have maintained a strong belief that this is a necessary change to ensure that student life is not drastically altered by enrollment numbers across other areas of campus housing.
“I don’t think it will make a difference,” AU student Jake Bucher said. “If anything it might help to have older students who can help the younger students with courses that they don’t understand. It also would help the freshmen get a better feeling of what Ashland is like through their own experiences.”
Incoming AU students move to campus on Friday, August 23, with upperclassmen to follow that Saturday and Sunday.
“We hope there will be no issues,” said Adam. “Almost all returning students with housing assignments in Amstutz Hall placed themselves in the lottery.
“If there are any issues or concerns, we encourage students to come talk to our office so we can help come up with a resolution.”
