Think back to when you were a little kid. Do you remember thinking it would be so much fun to live in a hotel? Watching “The Suite Life of Zach and Cody” made it seem like running in the halls, causing mayhem, and getting maid and room service a paradise. Now consider how it would feel as a college student to live in a hotel.
For about 80 Rowan students, the Fairfield Inn and Residence Inn located right next door to each other in Deptford are their temporary homes. The Edgewood Park Apartments’ 400 building is under renovations and the building is expected to be prepared for residents to move into on October 20, 2012. But in the meantime these students are getting a taste of commuter living.
Students housed at these hotels must take a shuttle, provided by Rowan University, or their own cars to get to campus. The shuttle runs every hour Monday through Saturday from 7:15 a.m. until midnight and on Sundays until 6:00 p.m. from the Fairfield Inn hotel to Robinson Circle at Rowan University. Also, students were given a free meal plan to use on campus for the duration of their relocation along with the hotel dinner from 6:00p.m. – 7:00p.m. and breakfast from 6:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. daily. The Fairfield Inn hotel rooms are standard, with two queen size beds and a bathroom or a single room with one king size bed and the Residence Inn is furnished with a kitchen and living room space in each room. Both hotels have pools and they are located right next door to Chicago UNO, near the Deptford mall and close to other strip malls.
So it may sound like these students are living the high life, with daily maid service at their convenience, but the residents have varying opinions of their hotel lifestyle.
According to Kaylin DeSantos, sophomore Psychology major, “living in the hotel is an extreme inconvenience and I feel very isolated from campus, it’s just not the same college experience.”
Some students agree with DeSantos in that living in the hotel, which is about a twenty minute drive from campus, is like not even being at college. Although the amenities the hotel provides are very nice they are not comparable to the “homey” feeling of living in their own apartment on campus close to their friends and activities.
Jim Batistick, sophomore computer science major, feels that “ [living in the hotel] makes getting involved on campus really difficult. Also making plans with friends requires a lot more planning.”
Hotel students overall feel that the hotel is very well-kept and the employees are very helpful. The main struggle for students is the inconvenient distance from campus and having to rely on the shuttle for transportation. The other main sentiment that students in the hotel expressed is the disconnection with campus because clearly living approximately 11 miles from campus and having limited transportation puts a damper on the “college experience” these students want.