New ASLC pres, vice pres; residence hall closures

Elin Johnson, Staff writer

Kainoa Cuttitta and AnnaMarie Motis are the new Linfield student body President and Vice President, respectively.

 

Cuttitta earned 319 votes compared to challenger Jose Madrid Beltran’s 273 votes. Motis received 422 votes and her competitor Dave Nagaji won 119 votes. Of the student body, 44.35% voted.

 

The Director of Residence Life visited ASLC senate during the March 13 meeting to answer questions regarding housing information.

 

Jeff Mackay, who is also the Associate Dean of Students, spoke in preparation of the upcoming housing registration. Registration and more information about next year’s housing situation will be released the week following spring break.

 

Mackay addressed upcoming changes. Next academic year three residence halls will no longer house students. Those halls are Potter, Newby and Memorial. Mackay stated that the reasoning behind this was low enrollment. Mackay also said that there was a possibility that Potter would be used to house conferences during the next academic year.

 

The school envisions enrollment to stay at these low rates for the next few years and then increasing once more. Mackay said that they anticipate 430 students to be enrolled next academic year and there will be enough housing for those students. Currently residence halls can accommodate 460-480 students.

 

Mackay said that the school hopes that by expanding both sports management and wine studies into both major and minors more students will be interested in attending Linfield. The growing wine studies department could draw students from the Chemeketa Community College wine program to Linfield. Most of those students would transfer in as upperclassman and campus housing would not be as impacted by their attendance.

 

Registering for housing next year will be done online. It will be the same method used last spring. Mackay said last year’s registration went better than expected and that student feedback was positive. Housing information will come out the first week of April, after spring break.

 

Registration for fall housing will open before registration for summer housing. That will occur in May. This is done so that it is known where students are living during the fall before they are placed for the summer. Mackay says his team tries to make sure that students are not subject to excess moving between summer and fall term.

 

Mackay announced that the school is working to make housing during January term free for students of all grade levels. As of now, it is free for freshmen to stay in residence halls during January term. They have to pay for tuition and a meal plan. Mackay said that this move was to benefit international students, athletes, seniors working on their final projects or anyone else who had to stay on campus.

 

Mackay said that the housing and registration website is being improved and the new site will be finalized this summer. The current page is still available. Questions about housing can be emailed to [email protected].