Students finally move into new townhomes

On Jan. 1, the three final Wheaton College townhouses opened their doors to their first residents.
After much communication with the city of Wheaton, construction on five new campus houses began during the spring of 2014. Initially intended to be completed at the beginning of the 2014-2015 school year, delays in construction resulted in upperclassmen returning to residence halls for a third year to wait for the completion of their new homes.
The end of October of 2014 finally saw the opening of two of the five new buildings, and students moved out of Fischer, Smith-Traber and MacMannis-Evans into the eight-person houses situated on the corner of Harrison Street and Irving Street.
Twenty-four students who studied abroad or spent fall semester off campus or in another housing location intended to move into the three remaining townhouses at the beginning of the semester. The residents were obliged to find alternate accommodations on campus for the first several weeks, including multiple dormitory lounges.
Although initially move-in was pushed to Jan. 31, the houses were formally ready to be opened more than a week sooner, and this past weekend 16 female and eight male students were able to move in. Senior Kirsten Rieck, who spent the past semester in Senegal, expressed relief at having a place to settle down, after almost a month of commuting to campus from 30 minutes away.
An introductory meeting on Tuesday helped set up procedures for the upperclassmen as they move into their new homes. The new living space will provide more options for housing registration moving into fall of 2015.