Campus housing gets positive reviews from ICC students – housing staff asks for even more input
Campus Housing at Illinois Central College on the East Peoria campus currently houses over 250 people and contains about 120 units for students to reside in. Residents were asked a series of questions about how they felt about housing life and the campus staff.
One thing that remained consistent throughout all the interviews was the students’ opinions about the staff of campus housing. Five out of the five interviewees responded that they had positive experiences when having to contact or speak with staff.
Students shared positive opinions of the staff, saying things such as, “They’re really nice and respond well” and “The people in the office are really nice and helpful if I have any questions.”
One student specifically gave a message to the assistant director, “Keep doing what you’re doing!”
Another common opinion expressed by the students was their favorite parts about living on campus. Three out of the five students said that their favorite part about living on campus is how close it is to their classes.
The remaining two students said that their favorite part of living on campus was their friends and roommates.
When these two students were interviewed, they responded with an extreme amount of positivity about life on campus saying, “Living on campus is fun; everybody should do it. If you get the chance, do it because you get to explore and meet new people and try new things and live the college life.”
Patty Hall, the assistant director of campus housing, also spoke with Harbinger Student Media reporter Sophia Larimore about life on campus and gave insights into topics that should be more well-known by students.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
SL
So, what do you do as an assistant director?
PH
I do a lot of things. So I help with leasing. So writing applications for people who are applying for housing. I check move-in dates. I go through and check room assignments, that kind of thing. I make sure that we don’t oversell ourselves on two bedrooms or three bedrooms or four bedrooms depending on what they’re looking for.
I try to keep track of the priority list for people who want the studio apartments. I also do all of the RA (resident assistant) training, and all the event planning. So we’re trying to do events every other week. And then we have a whole other welcome week planned where we’re doing a lot of classes for how to be an adult, called Adulting 101, and we’re doing mocktails. So we’re going to teach students how to rent an apartment after they’re done with us and how to file taxes and how to register to vote and how to do the math to figure out what their interest is on their student loans, that kind of thing. So I’m trying to create more of a community here. That’s my position.
SL
I interviewed some students before this and every single one of them did say positive things about the staff. I think I had one student say that the amount of time it takes was a little iffy. But they were like, “It’s whatever” because they understood that some things might take a little bit longer.
PH
Well, I think the thing that helps is instead of just being like, “We’ll get to it” or “We’re doing our best,” we’re like, “Hey, this is what’s happening,” “This is why it’s taking so long. We’re sorry.” So we’re not just giving them a blanket statement. We’re telling them what’s happening. We’re treating them like adults because they are adults. And adults can understand that sometimes life happens.
SL
When I did interviews some people wanted more events. There were a couple people who were like, “I wish we did more things here.”
PH
We’re trying!
SL
Didn’t you replace a bunch of staff this year?
PH
Yeah. So there was a huge staff turnover. By the time I got here, they had all since moved on. So I don’t know specifically what happened. I know that there were things that were supposed to be done that weren’t getting done, like resident events and that kind of stuff.
Resident complaints weren’t taken as seriously as they should have been. There were a lot of factors which kind of pulled into why the whole staff was replaced. And then we created a whole new position for Anna Ruth, who’s the office coordinator, who does a lot of the billing stuff, which is nice.
SL
That’s great. Now, another thing I don’t think a lot of students here recognize, isn’t student housing separate from ICC?
PH
It is, technically. So we have a company called COCM that manages us, and then the trust for the college owns the buildings. So we’re like a third party that’s brought in to help run everything, basically. From what I understand it to be.
SL
Gotchya. Is the clubhouse and this building ICC or yours?
PH
So same kind of thing. We manage it but we don’t own it. So it’s owned by the college, basically.
SL Gotchya. Any last things that you want to talk about or think people should know about student housing that you think should be in this article that should be shared?
PH
I mean, people can come in and request events if they think that they have one that would do really well. We’re really open to hearing what the students want. Yeah. And we’re really open to their complaints or criticisms. We’re only going to get better if you let us know ways to get better. We’re only going to be able to fix things if you let us know that they’re broken. All right. And we’re really dedicated to doing those things.