Apply Early For Housing
Written: Jan 27 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Nice campus location
Cons: It is a residence hall, it is noisy, hard to study in your room
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| poseidon's Full Review: University of Wisconsin-Madison |
Part of the problem with having a campus of 30,000+ students is finding a place to house them all, especially in a town as small as Madison. Madison had, in 1990, a permanent population of around 110,000. Obviously, with almost 30% added to the permanent population, housing could present a problem.
Freshmen and sophomores are almost guaranteed housing in the residence halls. Juniors and seniors were, at the time I attended, encouraged to find housing elsewhere. However, if space permitted, they did everything they could to try to find housing in the residence halls for all students. Housing was, at the time, provided on a first-come-first-served basis.
In my junior year, when I initially attended UW-Madison, I applied for housing as soon as I was accepted to the college. I had never been out there, and didn’t relish the idea of making a special trip and going apartment hunting, nor did I cherish the thought of showing up in late August with no place to live and seeing what’s left over.
I was lucky. I was able to secure a room in Witte Hall. Witte Hall is a coed housing facility with two towers and two wings in each tower. Each wing on each floor was set aside for one gender. For instance, I lived on the fifth floor, South tower, South wing. The other wing on my floor was reserved for the female students. I thought, for the most part, this system worked out well. In the center of the wings was a lounge area, with a television, a plethora of couches that looked like they were circa 1970, and an ironing board. We did have cable television.
Women dominated the television during most weekdays, watching their various soap operas. Men dominated the television on weekends, watching sports. Most everyone could agree on watching something at night.
Laundry facilities were in the basement. There were as many machines as you would find in your local Laundromat. As long as you didn’t attempt to do laundry during peak hours, it was rather simple to find an empty machine or two, and get your laundry done.
When doing laundry, it was important to note that you had to stay in the laundry room. If you didn’t, you risked someone stopping the cycle, taking out your clothes, and having the person use your money for doing their own laundry. You might even find a few articles of clothing stolen. Thievery was a problem in the laundry area.
There was a lounge on the main floor that housed minor entertainment facilities. Again, there was a nice color television with cable. There was also a pool table and a ping pong table. There were a few vending machines, with candy, soft drinks, and yes, condoms.
Witte Hall has no eating facilities, however. If you were on the university’s meal plan (which isn’t all that bad), you had to walk across a sky bridge to the housing facility next door, which had a rather large dining hall. However, the sky bridge was uncovered – so if it was raining or snowing (this is Wisconsin), you were exposed to the elements.
The rooms in Witte Hall are set up for double occupancy. The rooms are about 8 feet wide by about 13 feet long. All the furniture, two desks, two beds, two dressers, are provided by the school. You are allowed to move the furniture around (it isn’t bolted down). You are allowed to put the bed frames in storage and make bunk beds to try to create more room. However, you have to get permission from the Wisconsin Housing Organization (WHO) to do this. They have to approve the design and the structure, and make sure it is safe.
On each floor resides a Resident Assistant (R.A.). This is a student who has been deemed by the WHO to be responsible enough to take care of most problems on the floor. The R.A. is your first gateway to the WHO. If the R.A. cannot answer your questions to your satisfaction, then you are to go to the next person down the line.
Sometimes, like all people in authority, the R.A. is either nice and helpful, or is a waste of oxygen. Unfortunately, mine was the latter. That’s all part of the risk when you enter a politically charged university environment. However, I developed friendships with most of the R.A.s in Witte Hall, and for the most part, they were courteous and helpful.
Every room in Witte Hall is given a postal box in the lobby on the main floor. If you pick up your mail, you are also picking up your roommate’s mail.
Every room in Witte Hall is provided with a telephone to the outside world. However, when I was attending, each outgoing telephone call in Madison that was outside of the university telephone system cost nine cents. I found it very helpful to keep a log of telephone calls made, because I had a roommate who called everyone on the planet, and our monthly phone bills were outrageous. Naturally he wanted to split the phone bill 50/50. Naturally I thought fairness dictated otherwise.
Parking at Madison is close to impossible, unless you lease a private space (for an ungodly sum of money – in my junior year I paid $350 for a nine-month lease on a parking space) or you buy an annual street permit for $12.00. However, with a street permit, you had to move your car every 48 hours or else it would be towed. There is permit-parking in very outlying areas for students, but it is on a first-come-first-served basis, and you pretty much have to know someone with some power at the university to even discover when the sign-up process begins for a permit. The amount of student parking spots available was, I believe, less than 300 spaces. For 30,000+ students, you can imagine that even trying for those spaces is a lost cause.
I opted in my senior year to rent an apartment instead of returning to the residence halls. The price difference wasn’t much of a factor, considering I had a roommate and was able to split rent and utilities. However, looking for an apartment in the middle of my second semester in my junior year for my senior year housing showed I was already late in the running, as many of the best places were already leased.
The trick is, if you want any choice of housing at all, apply as soon as you are accepted to the school.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
poseidon
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 - Top 200 |
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Member: Jeffrey Schwartz
Location: Sunrise, FL, USA
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