Crowding causes unwanted stress

Norwich this year has one of the largest incoming classes it has ever seen, leading to overcrowding in dorms, classrooms and dining halls.

"It is the largest freshmen class in Norwich history as far as the data available to me," said Brig. Gen.

Michael Kelley, vice president for student affairs and commandant of cadets. "We have 552 rooks, approximately 198 civilian residential and transfer students and approximately 50 commuter students."

Deposits flew in at "record numbers," he said. The corps is the largest it's ever been, with about 1,400 students.

"There are two factors that led to the high demand for residential spaces which lead to our overcrowding," Kelley said.

"One [factor] was a very large freshman class. The second reason why we are in an overcrowded situation was because of high demand to be on campus by our upperclassmen," he said.

When asked about how many students NU over-accepted, Kelley said, "I wouldn't say (NU) over accepted, I use the phrase, ‘More students deposited than our model would have predicted,' that's the way I would say it."

Kelley stated that the number of students that NU is over by is "roughly 100."

Aaron Benson, a 21-year-old senior communications major from Lancaster, Calif., said that the school "neglected to look at the impact of over accepting freshman students would have on the entire campus."

"I also think that this happened partially because we are in a recession and the school has bills that need to be paid," Benson said.

Other students also notice the abundance of students on campus.

"They just accepted too many students," said Nicole Cronin, an 18-year-old freshman psychology major from Old Bridge, N.J.

Jon Wright, a 19-year-old sophomore nursing major from Middlebury, Vt., said, "Norwich wants more money."

Brittany Ramsay, a 19-year-old  sophomore criminal justice major from Brunswick, Vt., said, "They say that they accidently let too many people in, but they knew exactly how many people they had room for."

According to Kelley, once students are accepted, they are encouraged to pay their deposits by the first of May.

"We weren't sure if we were going to meet our targets, but literally in the last few days of April a flood of deposits came in and that is what put us over the top on the incoming class size," Kelley said.

"We turned away students that deposited even a couple of days late," Kelley said. "We had such an influx of students that did deposit within the last few days."

This left the school with no other choice, according to Kelley.

A significant problem caused by the campus being overcrowded is an overwhelmed dining facility, according to students.

"The chow hall is overcrowded, silverware is missing, and it takes forever just to get food," Cronin said.

Ramsay also notices the difficulty of using the dining facility. "I really don't care [about overcrowding] other than the fact that I have to stand in line forever for lunch," he said.

"The chow hall is stuffed with students," Benson said. "There is almost never a place to sit, which makes students have to go out of their way to eat lunch at a time that the chow hall isn't full of students."

NU offers "grab and go lunches" on Tuesdays and Thursdays to "relieve some of the stress in the dining hall," Kelley explained.

The "grab and go lunches" let students who are tight on time to grab a sandwich, chips, fruit and a bottle of water, according to Kelley.

The overcrowding on campus has affected the dormitories and barracks as well. Some lounges in residential buildings have been turned into rooms.

Wright said that overcrowding has "affected the study lounges, which has affected [his] studying habits."

 "We did not convert all of the study lounges, we left a couple of them as study lounges," Kelley said. "We also left what I'll call the main lounges as lounges and there was no impact on Crawford, Crawford stayed the same."

It isn't just the residential buildings that are being affected by the overcrowding. The classrooms are also overcrowded, according to students.

"Even the classes are overcrowded," Cronin said. "Students that come in late have to stand."  

"Classes have more people than people are used to having," Ramsay said.

There has been a lot of stress put on the upperclassmen, according to Benson. "The classes have been packed."

Benson said the overcrowded classrooms are putting a lot of sophomores, juniors and seniors in bad positions because "they can't get into classes they need."

Kelley explained that the registrar's office has "expanded the number of offerings and created some new sections for classes," as a result of the large freshmen and sophomore classes.

"The way I describe it to somebody," Kelley said, "is it's like when a big snake is eating an animal you see the bulge go through the snake."

"We have two bulges going through right now, we have a freshman bulge and a sophomore bulge and we got to make sure we are taking care of both of these bulges," Kelley said.

Karen McGrath, vice president of enrollment, declined to be interviewed. "Two stories about overcrowding at Norwich University have already been done," according to Patricia Baldasaro from the Office of Admissions.

Cronin said she started noticing the overcrowding problem "when the garbage cans in Crawford Hall were getting filled up and [she] could smell the garbage."

"On the weekends the trash cans are full of trash which makes the hallways stink," Benson said.

The large number of incoming freshmen did affect some dorms throughout the campus, according to Kelley.

"The impact on South is the conversion of the lounges," Kelly said, "The impact on the Upper Parade Ground was the conversion of the corner rooms to triples and the alumni quads, which were quads last year as well."

Some students are paying for housing on campus, only to be made to live off campus, according to Cronin. "The school should put them up in a hotel and shuttle them to and from school," Cronin said.

The requirement that civilian juniors live on campus was adjusted and relaxed this year; juniors can live off campus if they wanted to, according to Kelley.

Kelley added, "We held a line on students who had not done what they were supposed to do and were not eligible to return (on campus) and made them move off campus." Kelley said. "There are about a dozen corps students that fall under that category."

"We now offered them the opportunity to move back on campus," Kelley said. Some of these students have decided to remain off campus, according to Kelley.

Many other schools are dealing with overcrowding issues, according to Kelley.

"This is showing us two things. Our demand as a school is higher because incoming freshman do want to come to Norwich," Kelley said. "Upperclassmen want to come back too and so both of those things to me are good signs as we look to the future."

Some staff expressed concern that Norwich could be getting too big.

 "Our niche, besides being a corps of cadets 24/7, is our small class size and you get to know your professors, and I think at some point if we get too big that's going to start changing the dynamics that has made me stayed at Norwich this many years," said Martha Mathis, the NU dean of students."The powers to be have to decide what the inbound class is going to look like."

 "I spoke with a biology professor the other day and he has a lecture class of 70 and that is getting over the edge of a small intimate school," Mathis said.

"I worry about things that probably nobody else worries about. I love the fact that when you graduate there is time for you to shake Dr. Schneider's hand," Mathis said. "I worry about how that is going to happen with these large numbers. I worry about the traditions, and how to keep them with such large numbers."

Some decisions will need to be made about future growth.

"I think that the students and their success and your positive attitude are really important for the entire school as we look to make adjustments to shape the size of the incoming class," Kelley said. "We cannot bring another class in the size of the past two classes; there is simply not enough room."  

Appreciation is given to everyone throughout the Norwich campus for their cooperation and efforts in fixing the overcrowding affair, said Kelley. "I think that our students, to a very high degree, have all said we're in this together and we're going to make the best of it anyway we can."

Dan Magee contributed to this story.