Kansas State University - Royal Purple Yearbook (Manhattan, KS)

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While she settles into her new homE,tUe6l'tdrid Coy, freshman in electricol engineering, peers out the window ot her new residence in the Clarion Hotel. Coy wos one of 70 students who lived ot the hotel, lt wos different, Coy sold, But my experi- ence wos better than l thought it would be. Erin Poppe 1 V,,yV Hui' xvyrS7?Mj,W My 1 g::,gg:iW :ri ,. . -1:1 ..,..M1gp:1 ti '-'iW '7-3 ' 'lf .:,. lu M M ' - , f-1w,1,L53HrM'r'9 Wifi' W' ' ' ' i ,133 fs ii vl-Vik jififfr M1311 es-fi-ifa .,. ,,, V V- 4

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I I by Erin Poppe A week before the event, 308 people hod clicked the 'I m Attending button on Facebook forthe K-State Bright Out. This confirmed thot students would weor their brightest clothes to show their spirit. Sponsored by ReadyU, this online site was dicated to being a real resource for college .dents dealing with life on campus. On t. 6, ReadyU decided to scatter across 150 lege campuses, including The Univsersity lKansas and Wichita State University, in der to promote being bright and cheerful :n when school is bogging you down. Ashley Frerking, senior in marketing, was r universityis local ReadyU ambassador .o helped put it all in motion. Basically itis a competition, Frerking d. The best photos and videos can go tion wide on MTV. Weire trying to get :ryone excited about this. There were giveaway prizes for students .o participated. The prizes, s-uch as neon .ored sunglasses, mini laundry bags and inples of Cheer laundry detergent, were inated by Procter and Gamble. 'KThe Cheer samples are actually whatls behind the theme of Bright Outf' Frerking said. 'cTheir motto is ckeep your clothes cheery and bright', so it just worked really well with what we wanted to promote. From 11-3p.m. ReadyU representatives took photos, videos, and signatures in hopes to dominate the competition. Frerking was especially into the idea of beating KU. We want everyone to know that weire the best, because we aref, Frerking said. GI think we have a very spirited university. The students love getting involved and they responded well to thisf' Yet there were some students that felt there wasnit enough information out there prior to the event to get into it. Kasey Dassel, sophomore in business administration, was one of them. Sure they made a facebook group, Erin Poppe dufing the event. said Dassel. But it was only up for a short amount of time beforehand, and I didnit see any personal publicity. If they had come to talk to my sorority house during dinner, we would have had the information first hand and I think a lot more people would have wanted to join the funfi However there were students that gathered at Bosco to celebrate Bright Out, fully decked out in neon clothing. They performed the Wabash and the fight song for onlookers as the ReadyU representatives documented the event. Monica Klawuhn, senior in marketing, enjoyed watching all the festivities. lid say it was pretty successfulf' said Klawuhn. K'People were really excited about the products and the ReadyU website. And getting dressed up in neon colors. Who doesn't love that?l' Students sigr up and gather tree prizes and give-aways during the universitys tirst Bright Ou' Day Students and faculty were invited to aress up in their brightest colors to wear around carnpus on Oct 6. Various activites and gannes were played 15-

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Campus 10 0 by Eric Hostetler The university scrambled to find housing for more than 405 students who were part of a housing and dining overflow. As 4,100 freshmen showed up on campus Aug. 24, Tony Linden, freshman in park management and conservation, headed to the Pittman Building, home of Housing and Dining Services instead of going straight to the dorms. This was due to a letter he received after notified he was part of an overflow. For 70 of the students in overflow, their temporary home was on Fort Riley Boulevard: The Clarion Hotel. Our goal is to house every single student that is admitted to K-State, Chuck Werring, vice president of Housing and Dining Services, said. However, there are a limited number of beds on campus and in the Iardine community, so we try to make sure that those students have the ability to live on campus. Linden was just one of the many students who were considered part of the overfiow. Derek Iackson, associate director of Housing and Dining Services, estimated the maximum capacity for residence halls was 3,750, which left 210 students living in the Iardine Apartments, 45 students living in study rooms and 80 students living with RAS. We've been in overflow, Werring said. This is not the first time. We think there's an unanticipated number of people that try to sign contracts very late in the process. Although the process of overflow had been seen in the past, there had never been an overflow this extreme. Werring said this was the biggest overflow since the 1990- 1991 academic year. lt required the use of a hotel operation to house extra students. Iackson said that 90 students were assigned to the Clarion Hotel and 70 of them showed up. I didn't expect it to be this nice, that's for sure, Linden said. You can do pretty much whatever you want. You've got a nice huge bed, free cable and free Internet. The use of facilities at the Clarion Hotel also added a strain to the costs that Housing and Dining Services had to pay for. Iackson estimated that every student living at the hotel was costing the department 510 per day. 'gWe are losing money on the Clarionf, Iackson said. But if you've got 70 students living in the Clarion that would otherwise not be at K-State and not paying tuition, the ballpark number is 100 students is 551 million in tuition. In the big picture, itis actually beneficial to the university, even though Housing and Dining is initially going to lose money on the contracts. It's a win for the university from a financial standpoint. Even with a large increase in the number of overflow students, Werring stated there was no justification in building a new residence hall. He estimated the university would absorb most of the overflow by the holiday period, which meant there was no need to burden students with a facility that was not needed. Being in overflow right now might be a bad thing, but it's good that you're here as a student, Werring said. The key part of it is we want that student to be a K-State student. And that's important. That's the experience. 17,