There's No Place Like Home:
Housing at Manhattan College
Lisa Bernier
Issue date: 3/21/07 Section: Features
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These are impending choices for every non-graduating student at Manhattan. As for those graduating, good luck. The real estate market is a wild jungle full of cut-throat competitors and tiny cold water apartments. But, for those staying in college for at least another year or two, you will have options. Some you may know about. Some you may not. But information is power, and hopefully, this year, one will be able to navigate the housing maze without any problem.
The People
Enter the office of Residence Life, located on the top floor of Thomas Hall, and you will find Larry Perez, the current director of Residence Life. Having come to Manhattan only a year ago, Perez is in charge of overseeing, well, everything, from the rest of the staff, all the residence halls and the entire student populations.
Under him is Gail Dray, the associate director of Residence Life. From her current office on the second floor of Horan, Dray's job is in the details such as organizing room placement. She also served as a liaison for students who wished to acquire off campus housing until recently. In anticipation of the new dorm, East Hill II, the school will once again be able to accommodate all of the student population within its campus, and theoretically, overflow into the neighborhood will no longer occur thus Dray does not have perform this duty.
Christine Gallagher, the Assistant Director of Residence Life and Programming, Donna Leacy, Manhattan's Area Coordinator, six Resident Directors, three Assistant Resident Directors, and forty-five Resident Assistants that live in each of the dorms encompass the rest of the staff. The Resident Directors undergo an extensive interview process with Mr. Perez, and often, most of them teach at Manhattan. The Resident Assistants also go through a lengthy interview process, with RA selection for the 2007-2008 academic year occurring right now.
The Places
There are eight Residence Halls that house the 1,646 student population on campus. The four arguably best known dorms are famous because of their proximity. Horan, Jasper, Chrysostom, and De La Salle are all located around or near the campus quadrangle. The rest of the dorms, which include Overlook Manor, Quigley House, Cambridge Apartments, and the Riverdale Townhouses, are still considered on-campus though they are not on the main campus area. These also differ from the others because they provide apartment-style living. Horan comes closest in similarity to that providing four, five and ten person suites with while the other three dorms are all traditional style dorms.