“So, do you all remember the dorms that you were in when you were in school?” The University of Alabama’s new President Dr. Peter Mohler asked a group of reporters at the campus’s Riverside West student residential hall. APR asked him to compare his own undergraduate dormitory experience to the students arriving today, ahead of the start of the Fall term. “So mine (dorm) was cinder blocks,” Mohler continued. “There was no air conditioning, no internet because it didn't exist, no TV. If you were lucky, you might have a box fan in the window.”
The scene on the Tuscaloosa campus was a bit different from that. A stream of cars and trucks threaded its way along Hackberry Lane as incoming students and their parents unloaded furniture, televisions, even cases of Alabama’s famous Conecuh sausage as these young people moved in before classes begin on August 20th. Above and beyond the big screen TV and online gadgetry, Mohler says there are other things that matter on “move in” day.
“I think behind the scenes, to really, to say, you know what is happening beyond the buildings and the dorms,” Mohler added. “You all may not see this because it's not physical, but you know, the counseling services, the well-being, services that really support so, you know, we talk about it's great to have a great dorm room, absolutely, but to have some of these other things that really shape and the leaders of our future is, to me, even more exciting.”
The University of Alabama has close to 10,000 beds on campus, where freshmen are required to live in dormitories. These rooms are spread out in forty four residential buildings. The total of “required freshmen” dorm residents falls short of 100% occupancy. That’s due to students who live in Tuscaloosa, or even Birmingham who elect to live at home during their first year at the University. The actual total is closer to 95%.
“Today, we've got about 2100 moving in just today,” said Alicia Brown, Director of Housing Administration at UA. “Before today, we already had half of our students on campus. So early move in accounts for about half of the entire population. About 2100 today, another 2000 tomorrow, and then, honestly, some of our upperclassmen come straggling in right before classes start, but once we begin, we'll have nearly 9400 people in and settled on campus.”
Mohler noted how the internet wasn’t available during his days as a college undergrad. At UA today, times are different. Students can conduct classwork through a system called EDUROAM. Dormitory residents can use their campus credentials to log onto Xfinity for other uses like streaming services or video games. A lot of what was being unloaded at West Riverside was internet related equipment. Still, Brown says a lot of her job is dealing with “low tech” issues as opposed to “high tech.”
“We certainly get questions about hooking up the Wi Fi and how's my Smart TV going to work,” she said. “But I talk much more to students and their parents about roommate relationships, about getting involved. How do I meet people? What's my RA going to do to help me? In the end, I think those are really the issues that make a difference in a student's first year on campus.”
President Mohler is settling in his new role as leader of the University. That included welcoming and speaking to parents and students as they went through the process of unloading the cargo needed for on-campus dorm life. Mohler says there are differences between his previous experience at Ohio State and what he’s encountering at UA.
"It's a lot warmer here in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, a little bit more humidity,” he noted. “But I would say, you know, both universities First Class, Class acts. But to see, you know, the efficiency here, the dedication. You know, you see how many of these students are volunteer students working from six to six today, not because they're getting rich doing it, but because they believe in this university. You know, that's the kind of stuff that's exciting.”
The University's efforts apparently haven't gone unnoticed. The website Niche interviewed students and gathered data from the U.S. Department of Education to rank schools for student life. UA came in at number five nationally, ahead of Yale, Florida State, and the University of Oklahoma. Georgia, UCLA, USC, and Vanderbilt were listed ahead of the Tuscaloosa campus.
