Tower previously only for graduate students, families
With the Women’s Quad closed for the 2013-2014 school year and 4,900 incoming students applying for housing, University Housing has decided to open Cliff Apartments to first-year students.
The closure of Women’s Quad for a $27.2 million renovation cut 543 beds — almost all usually given to first-year students — from USC’s housing system and has already forced resident mentors to take roommates. The opening of Cliff Apartments, which has historically been used for graduate and family housing, allows more students to stay on campus, greatly enhancing the first-year experience, said Joseph Fortune, University Housing’s director of administration.
“First-year students who are housed in residence halls are retained at a greater rate than those who are not,” Fortune said. “Living on campus yields increased faculty-student interaction, enhanced cognitive development and increased interaction with peers. Students who interact more frequently with faculty outside of class experiences gain in persistence to graduation, academic achievement, involvement and satisfaction with their collegiate experience.”
The 25 apartments will house between 60 and 70 students, including RMs, who previously did not work in Cliff Apartments. There are 65 one-bedroom apartments and 40 two-bedroom apartments total in the nine-story residence hall, which is next to Bates House and Bates House West.
This addition in rooms comes after University Housing made 800 fewer beds available to returning students in anticipation of the shortage of space for incoming first-years. About 1,000 upperclassmen will live on campus this fall and 2,127 applied for campus housing in late 2012.
Housing has also spent $141,000 to upgrade the furniture in Cliff Apartments, including new couches, coffee tables, dining sets and TV stands.
The apartment building will be co-ed by apartment and students will share bedrooms. Most other campus apartments have single bedrooms, but Cliff Apartments will have all other amenities included in residence halls like East Quad; Cliff Apartments residents will have a kitchen and living room area as well as separate bedrooms.
Fortune said he expects a positive response from students in Cliff Apartments. Apartment-style housing is very popular among all students living on campus, and much of it is usually reserved for upperclassmen and Honors College students, who get first pick of the highly coveted Horseshoe Apartments in the center of campus.