Ramada Inn housing 243 students

Two hundred and forty three Georgia College & State University students are living in the Ramada Inn. And according to them.that’s a good thing and a bad thing.

Dr. Paul Jahr, Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs and Director of University Housing says it’s a solution, but an expensive one.

“I can tell you we are paying the Ramada Inn roughly $130,000 a month for these rooms,” Jahr said. “This is not a money-making venture for the university. But we’re doing this because of our commitment to the students.”

January Clark a senior mass communication major living in the Ramada this semester. And she is one of many students there taking advantage of the large swimming pool.

“Compared to the standard fourth floor of Napier.this is like a resort,” Clark said.

The swimming pool is one perk. Students also have larger rooms (compared to an average dorm room) and weekly cleaning service. And GC&SU public safety officers regularly patrol the hotel area as a service to the students.

Transportation service is provided as well. A shuttle bus runs from the hotel to the university campus roughly every half hour.

“It’s cool,” said biology major Jessica Beard. “But the drive sucks. I have to get up earlier if I want to ride the bus.”

Some others are getting up early too.to park their cars in the hotel parking lot. Jahr says it’s not just Ramada residents are catching a ride.

“The bus system has been very successful,” he said. “We actually have non-Ramada residents and faculty parking at the Ramada so they’re putting their faith in it.”

But there is not a lot of faith in the phone system. Students have trouble getting an outside line.

Jahr says it’s a problem that University Housing didn’t anticipate.

“The hotel does not have a phone line for every phone. There are 28 lines,” he said. “And sometimes it’s difficult to get a dial tone out or in.”
Frustration over the phone problem is wide spread among the Ramada Inn residents.

“The phones to dial out are virtually useless,” said junior Bret Benson, a resident of the Ramada Inn. “We’ve been trying to get a line out from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and you just can’t.”

Students are also struggling with Internet connections in the hotel. University Housing is working with the Office of Informational and Instructional Technology and the Ramada Inn to fix the problem.

But some students say they aren’t having any problems.

“I like it,” said Brandon Jackson, a sophomore psychology major. “No complaints here.”

There aren’t any complaints from the Ramada Inn management either.

“We’ve been doing it for seven years,” said Mr. Soofi, manager of the Ramada Inn. “This is the first time we’ve had this many [student residents].but we don’t have any problems. Some of them want to stay here. If they pay us on their own they can stay.”

But students’ staying in the Ramada Inn next year is something Jahr and University Housing wants to avoid. 188 students will move to the new west campus apartments before the spring term. The remaining 55 will stay in the Ramada Inn until openings on campus become available.

So is there a chance some students will be living at the Ramada Inn next fall?

“Oh, Lord,” said Jahr. “I hope not.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 6 2002. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry