University Housing is adding three new specialty floors at the start of the 1998 school year after faculty commitment and departmental interest brought about the change.

The three specialty floors will be available for students interested in philosophy, mass communication and education. In addition to these floors, more study and healthy lifestyles floors will be added for next year.

University Housing had specialty floors five years ago but they were discontinued because of the lack of faculty involvement.

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The plan was rejuvenated this semester after the introduction of specialty floors in engineering in Brush Towers and Thompson Point and architecture in Brush Towers.

Elizabeth Scally, coordinator of marketing for University Housing, said a department must show interest in helping students that live in the specialty floors.

We were contacted by the departments and they expressed that their faculty was ready to commit to a project like this, Scally said. The faculty and student involvement determines the success of these specialty floors.

Scally said it is the responsibility of the faculty in the various departments to visit the specialty floors and to assist students when help is needed. The faculty’s first visit to the dorms is at the beginning of the school year.

Thompson Point will feature the special emphasis floor in mass communications, while Brush Towers will have the education and philosophy emphasis floors.

Januari Smith, a junior in radio and television from Springfield, said she likes the traditional ways of calling a fellow classmate if she has any trouble with her homework.

I wouldn’t like it [living on a specialty floor] personally. I spend a lot of time with them in class, Smith said. With my major everyone is very close-knit. We talk on the phone on a regular basis.

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Smith lives on a transfer floor, another specialty floor offered by University Housing, and said she would rather live on a floor with people of the same age than have to live with people younger than her with the same major.

But students do not have to major in the particular field of study to live on a special emphasis floor because some students are undecided but have an interest in that specific field.

Ben Beyer, a freshman in architecture from Rockford, lives on an architecture emphasis floor and said that living on a specialty housing floor has been convenient for him because he lives with students who have similar schedules and problems as he does.

I would regret not living here, Beyer said. It keeps me straight. I figured it would help me by not always having to go to teachers but to friends on the floor that you have classes with.

Living on a special emphasis floor has improved Beyer’s grades and his study habits.

I did more homework the first two weeks of school than I did my entire senior year [of high school], he said. About four or five of us usually do our homework at the same time every night. You get more accomplished when everybody on the floor is doing the same thing.

Beyer said that having one’s major as a specialty housing floor is an opportunity that people should not pass up.

I believe that having a special emphasis floor to live on is a major benefit, he said. If you’re serious about your major, living on a special emphasis floor is definitely a good choice.

Forty spots are open in each of the three new floors and Scally urges students to meet the contract renewal deadline of Jan. 27 to assure a spot in one of the specialty floors.

Students who are interested in getting their major as a specialty floor must talk to their department, but Scally said it is too late for University Housing to add another specialty floor for next year.

Scally said that University Housing is still in the evaluation process on whether or not this program has been successful. She said that she had looked over some of the evaluations, and students have responded in a positive way.

We have run a survey that is not completed yet, Scally said. It’s been a real positive experience for the students, but as for grades we cannot tell yet.

FACTOID:Important dates to remember:Jan. 27- Contract renewal for University Housing begins.

Feb. 20- The last day to reserve a room for the 1998-99 school year.

March 6- The first payment for housing is due.

If a student turns in a contract, he/she is under no obligation to live in University Housing until the first payment is made.