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Friendship corridors see increase

Amelia Carpenter

Friendship corridors, an on-campus living option created in 1992 for upperclassmen, have seen a tremendous jump in popularity as a result of the sophomore living requirement starting next fall.

According to Lucinda Coveney, director of housing contracts and meal plans, said 2008-09 saw the lowest number for friendship corridor requests.

"During the past five years, we've seen a decrease in those (friendship corridor) numbers, and last year was the lowest number, only 219," Coveney said.

Now that both first and second year students are required to live on campus, numbers have increased for both the living learning community dorms and the friendship corridors, according to Coveney.

Coveney said a friendship corridor allows 8 to 16 students (male or female) to request to live in the same corridor in certain reserved residence halls.

Coveney added friendship corridors were created to increase the popularity of on-campus living. She said numbers for the friendship corridors were highest with 1,012 students in 1998.

According to the Housing and Room Selection Web site, April 1 was the official room selection day for all students who have put in for a friendship corridor.

For fall 2009, 56 groups have gone through the lottery selection process with a total number of 628 students, according to Coveney.

In the past, living on campus for more than one year has been a self-selection process according to Rob Abowitz, associate director of residence life.

With the requirement for sophomores to live on campus, Abowitz said the process is being closely monitored by housing to accommodate all students living on campus.

"There has been a lot of attention paid to balancing the beds we need to house all of these sophomores and the desire we have from juniors and seniors," Abowitz said.

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Factors like the incoming first-year class size will affect the new requirement as well for housing, according to Abowitz.

"Prior to this point we've only had 7,000 beds on campus," Abowitz said. "We've never been able to house everybody on campus, but typically if someone says they want to live on campus, we can do that."

In case overflow housing is necessary, Abowitz said there is space to accommodate students.

"We can shift things, the process has got the flexibility, and we've opened some years with 30 or 50 students with overflow housing," Abowitz said. "We work hard and pretty fast to get them out of (the) situation."

According to Abowitz, there is overflow housing space in the basements of Havighurst and Hepburn halls, which has previously been used as lounges.

"As long as we can lock the door and get a data cable, we can turn it into a room," Abowitz said.

In addition to the popularity of friendship corridors, the office of residence life will offer "themed learning" as a new option for upperclassmen. These self-selected living learning communities will be partially funded by the university, Abowitz said.

"(They're) like friendship corridors, but students identify a theme or idea around the community in which their community will be focused," Abowitz said. "(They will have) priority in the housing process because it's a part of a special program."

According to Abowitz, the students must identify a faculty sponsor and ideas for programming. He added they will receive some financial support for their programs and have preference over the corridors in which they would like to live.

Coveney said she remains positive the second year on-campus living requirement and friendship corridors can improve the undergraduate experience at Miami.

"We thought that if they could choose their neighbors, it would improve their overall experience," Coveney said.