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A slice of campus life written by an MTU student

Statue building for Winter Carnival falls into two categories, month long and all night. Each category has various divisions. Delta Sigma Phi took first for the fraternity division (right) of month-long statues. The all-nighters are statues that organizations create in one night. I worked on an all-nighter in the on-campus division for Circle K called "Jellysnow Nat'l Park" (below).

Carnival wrapup and a look at housing

It’s hard to believe another Winter Carnival has come and gone. Like all things anticipated in life, Winter Carnival came and went in the blink of an eye. However, I know most of us students have special memories of this past week to appreciate for years to come. This is one of the best years for snow statues that I have ever seen. Delta Sigma Phi took first place in the fraternity division of snow statues with “Aladdin in the Land of Frozen Sand.” (See more results.) As I stood before their statue, which was much bigger and more lavishly detailed than any of the other snow statues this year, I realized that Michigan Tech students can do some pretty amazing things.

Although the snow statue I worked on for the All-Nighter division was much simpler than Aladdin, I was still pretty proud to be part of a student organization that wanted to contribute to Carnival. Circle K ended up winning second place in our division, which was an honor because we had never won anything in years past! Overall, I hope all of you who traveled to experience Winter Carnival for yourselves also enjoyed it as much as I did. As parents, you all should be extremely proud of your students for putting in so much work and for helping to carry on one of Michigan Tech’s unique traditions.

Now that I have recapped Winter Carnival, I can move on to this week’s topic: recontracting for student housing. Recontracting is when students who live in the residence halls resign their housing contracts for the next year. Recontracting begins on February 23, so it is important that your student has started figuring out where they want to live for next year. If they are staying on campus, then they must recontract. If they are moving off campus, then they should already have started to look for places to live. I lived in Wadsworth Hall my freshman year and decided to move off campus with some girls I had met in my hall. Looking back, I think I would have stayed in the residence halls if I would have known they were going to be remodeled!

There are definitely some perks to staying in the residence halls. First of all, you never have to cook your own food or clean your own bathroom (unless your student lives in a suite). And if your student is crunched for time, they will appreciate this perk. Another perk is the inexpensive and convenient laundry. Living off campus, I pay nearly triple the cost of doing laundry in the residence halls. Another perk to living in the residence halls that most people don’t think of is the social aspect. I miss being able to walk down the hall to find at least ten different things to do during the weekends. Most students don’t realize how convenient it is to be able to live with your friends. Living off campus, I also miss the convenience of being able to walk to class in about five minutes. Now I have to drive to campus, and sometimes I can’t park as close as I’d like to. Residential Services has more information about on-campus housing.

There are also the on-campus apartments called Daniell Heights that many students enjoy living in. The Heights offer options for one and two bedroom apartments, along with options for faculty, graduate students, married students, and single students. However, the Heights are off-limits to incoming freshmen.

As most students would argue, there are also perks to living off campus. You are able to have your very own space and live with people of your choice. You also get to have more privacy and space. However, you also have to be more organized and responsible with paying bills. Some students don’t realize that you will also need to be responsible for your utility bills and monthly rent that won’t automatically be paid with your tuition. It is also important that students look at signing leases soon. Most landlords lock in their tenants around this time. I would say it is fairly easy to find off-campus housing in Houghton. The most common housing situation that students chose is to rent a house or apartment with other students. Our undergraduate student government provides an off-campus housing list with places available to rent.

There are also housing ads placed in our student newspaper, The Lode, and in the local newspaper, the Daily Mining Gazette. If your student is looking for off-campus housing, those two resources along with fliers in Fisher Hall and the MUB are common places where ads will be posted.

Until next week,

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