Washington State University - Chinook Yearbook (Pullman, WA)

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Housing Woes Fact or Fiction? By Deb Davis Oct. 3,1980 — It was only hours until overcrowding in the residence halls was eliminated due to the correct estimate of the no-show rate and the cooperation of the halls ' staff, said Stan Berry, Director of Admissions. Regarding the possibility of curtailing admissions to relieve the housing situa¬ tion, Berry said little chance appears, un¬ less the academic quality suffered be¬ cause of budget problems. Berry said, It is wrong to tell a student they cannot come here due to a housing problem. But according to Registrar C. James Quann, Anytime the enrollment in¬ creases, the quality of education erodes. He added that the university is $45 million short of what administrators think is necessary to maintain the quality of education at WSU. Figures from the Registrar ' s office showe d that as of October 3,198017,428 students have enrolled compared to 16,404 from fall 1979. Quann said that enrollment should level off and drop af¬ ter the next two or three years. He said this is because the number of high school graduates is declining. William Bierbaum, Director of Hous¬ ing and Food Service, agreed that the university ' s enrollment should taper off after the freshman and sophomore bulge is worked out of the system. Bierbaum stated that the residence halls are at less than full capacity. He An In Depth Feature on a Growing Concern

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Debater Douglas Pierce prepares for upcoming debates . Robin Wittkopf responds to debate cross-examination. Debaters... We Do It If at first you don ' t succeed, try, try again . The 1980-81 debate squad, a program in the Department of Speech, put this statement to the test when they tried to re-institute the team after a three to four year absence. Coach of this year ' s debate squad, Darel Maxfield, and the 15 students enrolled in the class during the fall semester set out to prove that even though the WSU debate team was dropped from the Department of Speech in the past, it could be very successful again. WSU once had a very powerful team. Darel Maxfield said it was one of the strongest in this part of the state. Gonza- ga University, which has a very electrify¬ ing team today, has been said to have built a majority of its power through past Orally! competition with WSU. Three to four years ago, however, des¬ pite the team ' s success, the debate squad faded from the vocabulary of WSU. Although many reasons have been attributed to the expiration of the team, the main one seems to have been budget cuts within the Department of Speech. Maxfield claimed that because of a need to re-allocate money, the team lost most, if not all of its backing, causing its death. With the 1980 budget cuts being pro¬ posed, an unfortunate question has arisen. Will the team started this year fall prey to the same death as the team in the past? Darel said that the squad, because it is one of the newest in the Department of Speech, is low on the list of priorities. If there are any cut backs within the de¬ partment, the team will probably take the loss. Assistant Professor of Speech, Robert Nofsinger, however, gave some encouraging news to the team members when he said that the squad would be available to students in the future as far as he could tell. Although the team represented WSU excellently in its first year of competition against such schools as Gonzaga and Montana State, the outcome of the team at this point is still nebulous. But Darel has encouraged the team from the start not to lose hope, saying that it ' s always darkest before the dawn. And as one debater said, I think things are finally starting to go our way! For once we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

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explained that Housing and Food Ser¬ vice essentially overbooks the residence halls, taking into consideration that some students will not cancel their con¬ tracts in advance but will not show up to claim their room reservations when the hall opens. This year, 6,370 residence hall con¬ tracts were issued for 5,905 spaces (in¬ cluding the graduate center). This means that 465 students were over¬ booked. According to Bierbaum, the halls are overbooked because of the attrition or no-show rate. The attrition rate was set at three percent, or 191 students. Above this number, 274 more contracts were issued, thus totalling 465 reservations. Last spring the Presidential Task Force on Residence Hall Occupancy recom¬ mended that the maximum number of students to be overbooked should not exceed 286. This figure does not reflect the three percent attrition rate. If the 286 limit had been surpassed, the task force strongly recommended that the freshman live-in rule be sus¬ pended for freshman who were admit¬ ted after the date when the maximum number was reached. It would then be the responsibility of the individual stu¬ dent to seek housing after being in¬ formed that the residence halls were full. According to Bierbaum, the number of bookings was not that close to the 286 limit — a difference of 29 reservations. He added that by Sept. 21 the no-shows made it possible for all of the overbooked students to be placed in permanent housing. In fact, there are empty spaces in the residence halls. But what if a majority of the 465 stu¬ dents who were overbooked had arrived in Pullman? It would be very unlikely , said Bierbaum. According to Bierbaum, the attrition rate is actually much higher than the blanket three percent. Using the data from previous years is very im¬ portant, he added. In 1978, the attrition rate was 8.7 percent; in 1979, it was 6.7 percent; and this fall it was 7.1 percent, or 452 cancellations. Bierbaum main¬ tains that the housing problem is well under control. Top: The strain of a crowded living situation can ' t he measured by appearance alone. Many factors enter into the problem. Above: The grind continues on for several weeks. 21