By Samantha Biastre

Starting in the fall of 2015 upperclassmen will be allowed to live in traditional dorms on campus once again. For the past several semesters, beginning with the spring semester of 2013, upperclassmen were no longer allowed to live in traditional dorms. Now, Housing and Residence Life is transitioning back to the living situations that were in effect two years ago.

Since there are only a specific number of beds in each hall Housing wanted to keep just freshmen in traditional halls. During these two years of freshman-only housing, Housing has created focus groups and conducted surveys with returning students to get feedback about living in traditional dorms.

According to Apryl Carney, associate director of Housing and Residence Life, the feedback received from students was largely positive about living in the traditional dorms. Carney went on to state that is was because of this positive feedback that Housing decided to go back to allowing upperclassmen to live in traditional housing.

When it comes time for room selection in February 2015, all of the dorms will be open for selection. This will include currently closed Johnson Hall and currently under construction Berks Hall. During the fall 2015 semester, Berks will be used as a specialty dorm for either honors or science students.

The room selection process for any upperclassmen that wants to live in traditional dorms will be the same as it always has been. The only pre-requisite is that the student must first apply for the housing process with a $75 deposit, which should have been paid by Dec. 12.

Any student who missed the December deadline can make the deposit during the first week of classes in January 2015. From January 14 through February 6, 2015 students can log onto the Myhousing website (http://myhousing.kutztown.edu) to enter and confirm roommate requests. Students will then be notified from Feb. 9-10 of the room selection appointment start time.

Based on their appointment times, students can select their housing from Feb. 11-20. Any student that does not participate successfully in the room selection, or does not have an assigned group, can then select a room from Feb. 23-27.

  Carney also stated that she hopes to have information sessions during the first week of spring 2015 classes. These sessions would be similar to the information session held in Dixon Hall last December. Any student who has any questions about the room selection process, the $75 payment process or anything else that would be related to the housing selection process is welcome to join.