University Times

Along with the Employee-Student Partnership and the Peer Assistance Leaders volunteer programs, Pitt's Johnstown campus (UPJ) this fall also launched a third new student program. This one is exclusively for freshman commuter students.

The brainchild of Jacob Stiffler, UPJ director of Housing and Residence Life, the program involves assigning dormitory space to groups of first-year commuter students.

The goal of the program is to give commuter students space where they can study or relax in private between classes, as well as to bring commuter students and resident students in closer contact with each other. UPJ administrators believe the program is the first of its kind in the nation: It already has attracted national attention.

Although the program did not begin until the start of the fall term, Stiffler was approached about it last summer during a meeting of the Association of College and University Housing Officers International in New Mexico. After he returned to Johnstown from the meeting, Stiffler also received a call about the program from a staff member at Arkansas State University urging him to write an article about the program for the association's journal. The article is expected to be published this month. Aware that resident and commuter students seldom intermingle on campus, Stiffler was searching for a way to bring the two groups together when he came up with the idea of assigning dorm space to freshman commuter students. Under the program, dormitory rooms assigned to the commuter students are the same as those assigned to resident students, except they do not contain a bed and do contain individual lockers for each student who uses the room. The commuter students assigned to dorm space are "full-fledged members of that residence community," who take part in the governance, programming and all other aspects of dormitory life, according to Stiffler.

The program is free to freshman commuter students. Stiffler points out that commuter students pay the same activities fees as resident students, but derive far less benefits from them because they are on campus far less than resident students. When Stiffler approached UPJ President Albert Etheridge and Vice President for Business Jeff Lavine with his plan, both agreed that the commuter students already were paying their share and should not be charged for use of dormitory space. But the students themselves still were suspicious.

"When I first made first-year commuter students aware of the program, almost no one signed up for it," Stiffler recalls. "They just weren't signing up for it and it became obvious to me that they thought there was some gimmick involved." So, during the summer orientation program, Stiffler's staff began personally talking to commuter students and assuring them there was no extra cost for the program. That finally spurred commuter students to begin signing up for it.

"My hope was that I would get about 50 percent of the commuter students. And I felt that might be a little unrealistic," says Stiffler. "Well, we had 85 percent sign up." The unexpectedly high enrollment forced Stiffler to scramble for space and additional lockers prior to the start of the fall term. Most students in the program are assigned to normal dorm rooms at the rate of six commuter students to a room. A few students have been assigned to larger rooms that hold 12 students, and one study space was converted to hold 18 students, who Stiffler says have formed a sort of social club.

According to Stiffler, the program has received "a number of very nice calls" from parents who are grateful that their child has a personal space in which to study and relax while on campus.

Stiffler says commuter and resident students also are now mingling on campus as never before. He frequently finds resident and commuter students studying and socializing in each other's rooms.

While there currently is enough dormitory space available to handle freshman commuter students, Stiffler is concerned about the possible loss of dorm rooms in the future. But he thinks he should be able to continue to find space because UPJ's enrollment has stabilized and is not expected to increase substantially in the future.

He also points out that additional dorm space was recently made available by the opening of UPJ's new living and learning center. And if that doesn't work, he says: "I'll just have to get more creative about space utilization."

–Mike Sajna