Starting in fall, University of Iowa honors students will call Catlett Residence Hall their new home instead of Daum Residence Hall.
UI Housing and Dining made the decision to accommodate limited dorm space for incoming honors students because of the planned sale of Mayflower Residence Hall.
As of this year, Daum houses 344 students, 200 of whom are honors students.
UI Director of Residence Education Greg Thompson said the move to Catlett will hopefully lead to a rise in the number of honors students living together. With Catlett being the newest addition to campus dorms, its nicer amenities could be an incentive for honors students.
“The trend we’re seeing is that they want to live more primarily with the roommates that they choose than a specific community, sometimes even a specific building … But we were seeing a lot of our students maybe opt to live in Catlett,” Thompson said.
Thomson said the UI is trying to go with the flow of students to see if the honors community can grow.
UI Honors Program Director Shaun Vecera wrote in an email to The Daily Iowan that the program involved its current students in the decision-making process when considering the move to Catlett.
“The Honors Program polled students currently living in Daum and our Honors Outreach Ambassadors,” Vecera said. “The student feedback indicated a preference for maintaining honors community with honors-only floors.”
Involving the honors student body was important in ensuring the move would support the honors community in the best way possible.
“It seems like the program and students have kind of given at least a tentative thumbs up to moving forward with this for next year to see how it works and impacts the community as well too,” Thompson said.
Delaney Resnick, a first-year student in the UI Honors Program, found out about honors housing being moved to Catlett when she was looking for next year’s housing.
Although Resnick believes that the move to Catlett may influence honors students to choose to live in the honors community, she wishes the community had more space for returning students.
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“As a returning student, I wish that there was still an honors community that honors students could get priority pick for,” Resnick said.
Vecera hopes the Honors Program will expand their living communities in the future and have more space for returning honors students who wish to continue living in honors housing.
“Personally, what I’d love to be able to see would be communities both on the east side and the west side,” Vecera said. “If the beds were available, I’d like us to be able to make sure that there’s beds for returning students.”