By Robin Gericke, News Editor
On June 27, female students who were supposed to be the future residents of Sarah Johnson Hall received an email that they were being moved to Kresge. Due to an unexpected increase in male enrollment, Sarah Johnson was being turned into male housing. Associate Dean for Community Life Joe Bruner said that “the primary factor was our occupancy demand for our male students.”
Sarah Johnson was historically the guest house of the university before becoming a female hall and part of the Aldersgate residences. Each room houses two students and has a private bathroom.
The female upperclassmen who applied and were accepted to live in Sarah Johnson were automatically moved to Kresge. Some were moved to Glide-Crawford after contacting Bruner directly. The cost of housing for Sarah Johnson is the same as the traditional dorms, and no discounts were offered to the students when they were moved from Sarah Johnson.
Last semester, senior Olivia Vinson applied to be resident adviser of Aldersgate apartments and was hired for Sarah Johnson. When she was told that Sarah Johnson was now a men’s hall, she said she was offered a job as an “extra” RA of Kresge. She chose not to take the position because being an Aldersgate RA is “very different than being an RA of a traditional dorm,” Vinson said. “For me, I think it’s very unprofessional of Asbury to go back on my contract that I signed during the spring semester that said I was going to be an Aldersgate RA.”
Vinson was given approval to live off-campus and now rents an apartment in Wilmore.
Senior Hannah Stafford and her roommate, however, were not given that approval. They were also planning to live in Sarah Johnson, and instead of living in a dorm, Stafford sought approval to live off-campus. After her application was denied twice, Stafford met with Business Affairs. Typically, students are allowed to live off-campus if they are married, 23 years or older, a fifth-year senior, living with family or working in exchange for rent. Stafford was told that she still must fit one of the five exemptions in order to live off-campus. She and her roommate now live in Glide-Crawford.
“I completely understand that the problem of having more guys than there was room for was no one’s fault and that utilizing Sarah Johnson was the most logical solution,” Stafford said. “However, I think the university could have been more accommodating to those of us who were displaced. We are all high-achieving upperclassmen who were promised this application-only housing from the school only to have it taken away by no fault of our own. Essentially nothing was done to compensate us.”
Vinson agreed. “I am extremely frustrated for my former residents of Sarah Johnson,” she said. “These women worked hard on campus. They applied for the privilege of living in Aldersgate housing, and Asbury broke its promise of housing for them.”
Even amidst frustration, Stafford knows it is not the end of the world. “I am confident that I’ll still have a good senior year here, even though it wasn’t what I hoped for,” she said.
Founders, the new name for the Sarah Johnson hall, now houses six male upperclassmen and 14 freshmen. Senior Zach Webb, the RA, said that he is “super excited for the future of the hall. All of the hall has a very unique dynamic that is going to carry out into a fantastic community in the very near future!”
Changing the hall back to female housing is not expected. Bruner said that “for the foreseeable future it will remain a male residence hall.”
