By Sasha Ndisabiye
Staff Writer
According to a report obtained from the office of admissions, Langston University decided to proceed with 2021 move-in plans even after receiving a warning about housing shortages.
Transitioning back to in-person learning in the fall 2021 semester, Langston University had a lot to prepare for the incoming students. Sodexo, the company that usually manages university services like food, housing, maintenance, and groundskeeping, lost its contract this summer, leaving four to six weeks before the freshman move-ins.
“This is an Oklahoma Board of Regents thing… so at that point, once their contract is up, there had to be three bids from companies that do the same services as Sodexo,” said Roy Moody, resident director of Commons Apartments and special teams coordinator for the LU football team. After hearing bids on a new contract, the university selected W.F.F Facility Services and Aladdin to replace Sodexo.
According to several housing staff, the transition from one company to the other was difficult. Carlos Robinson, director of the office of admissions, recruitment, and outreach programs, said once the contract ended, Sodexo packed up the company’s supplies and equipment used to manage the university and left without helping transition the new company.
“Once we said that we were going to end their contract, you can literally see services were not getting done from that point forward,” said Robinson. Replaced by what was described as an “eight-man crew,” W.F.F. was then responsible for getting 800+ dorm units cleaned and ready for incoming students.
Sherry Gatheright, administrative specialist of residential life and housing services said that multiple buildings in Scholars Inn alone had not been touched since the pandemic shut down the campus in March of 2020. These were completely “offline,” or not available for use, due to no electricity, no air conditioning, water outages, black mold infestations, broken toilets, and other maintenance issues.
Gatheright said the problem was not that the university did not have room for the students in those first rounds of move-ins, but that the rooms would not be ready by the time the students arrived.
Declining the Gazette’s request for interviews, Langston Administrators replied with an official statement:
We strive to do what is best for Langston University and our students. Making sure our students’ experiences are positive is always our goal. In that regard, we acknowledge the challenges we faced at this year’s move-in resulted in a less than desirable experience for a few students. We regret when something does not go as planned. The constructive feedback we received will help us improve our services and ensure a better experience. While most of our students had a positive experience, we want to ensure everyone does in the future. As we look back, we are unaware of receiving a report about a housing shortage before the move-in. We did receive feedback from an employee following the freshmen move-in with several observations and suggestions. We appreciated the feedback.
Langston University moves its students into the dorms in two waves: the first consists of just first-time students starting July 29 to 31, and the second starts Aug. 12 to 15 for returning students. On July 26, three days before the first wave of move-ins, a Zoom meeting was called with staff and administrators to discuss the 140 students without a housing assignment. Robinson confirmed that during the Zoom meeting President Smith told Kavaris Sims, assistant to the dean of students, to gather all resident directors around six or seven that night for a walk-through of Commons Apartments in search of extra space for incoming students.
That Monday, three days before the first day of first-year move-ins, 25 extra rooms were found in Commons Apartments to place some of the first-time students without room assignments. Commons Apartments are normally held by upperclassmen, honors students, students with families, and some faculty. As first-year students are now housed in returning students’ rooms, those returning students must find different rooms while the school is at full capacity, thus creating a domino effect of housing shortages and issues.
Discussing his experience with the first wave of move-ins, Robinson said, “We brought several students to the campus, and we were not ready for them. We did not have housing units; we understood that there were 140 students without a room assignment the Monday before move-in weekend. So, administration decided to move forward and see if they can pull off a miracle, and we ended up turning away two to three hundred students because we did not have any rooms available for them at that time.”
According to the final data report regarding first-time students of the fall semester, there are 1,724 total students enrolled in classes, but only 1,269 room assignments, leaving 455 students without a room. 107 of those are first time students who paid the $250 commitment fee, but do not have a room assignment.
The process of checking in each student, making sure that their FAFSA was in order and the commitment fees were paid went smoothly, but when it
Sasha Ndis
By Gabe Lane
Staff Writer
Regarding weather, 2024 did not start the way most had hoped as an unfamiliar freeze hit the majority of southern states.
Langston, Oklahoma, first started to see a drastic change in the weather on January 12th, when the temperatures dropped from 40 degrees all the way down to about 15 degrees and in some cases reaching single digits. Usually, the campus of Langston and its students are prepared for weather like this, but this time around has been a different story.
For the past 2 ½ weeks, temperatures have been no higher than 50 degrees while the average temperature stayed around the mid 20s. This is due to the arctic air from Canada being pushed down to the south, reaching as far the Gulf of Mexico. As the arctic air is being pushed down, it also brought different storm systems causing freezing rain, high wind gusts and snowstorms.
Kendall Caffy, a junior health administration major, who is also on the track and field team, had his own problems dealing with the cold. “The cold affected the engine of my car… it wouldn’t even start. We had to get my grandfather who lives in Tulsa to help take the car to get it fixed,” Caffy said. Caffy regrets not prepping his car for winter, “I definitely could have started the car before the winter storm came in and heated up the car, so I could have an extra charge left in my battery.”
Coach James Hilliard, head track and field coach, had similar problems dealing with the cold. “This was one of the first times since I’ve been at Langston University, and that goes back to the mid-70s, that I was not able to get to the campus when the weather was bad. The ice was, though thin, the glaze was bad enough that I couldn’t get from my door of the garage to my car,” Hilliard said.
Even though Hilliard is usually prepared for weather like this, he was still struggling, so he did the best he could to combat the freezing rain and roads. “I have salt, but the salt does not work if it keeps falling. I made sure to cover my windshield with plastic, raised my windshield wipers covering with plastic, so that if I were able to go somewhere, I would just be able to pull the plastic off and I wouldn’t have to worry about scraping and sliding,” Hilliard said.
Dealing with this type of weather can be difficult, especially when it drops well below freezing. It is best to prepare in the best way possible by starting the car to make sure heat gets into the engine and battery while also putting salt and plastic down, so you have a better chance of not slipping on the icy roads.
To stay more aware, check the news during times of potential or severe weather to see how it can play out. The weather, especially in Oklahoma, can be very unpredictable, so keep an eye out for weather alerts and warnings.
Gabe Lane is a sophomore broadcast journalism major.
