Two years after she last lived in an ISU residence hall, Sarah Kenkel, senior in family and consumer sciences education and studies, moved into newly reopened Wallace Hall. Kenkel isn’t alone in calling Iowa State’s newest-old dorm home.

More than 160 sophomores, juniors, seniors and graduate students currently live in the reopened dormitory, one of two remaining Towers residences, Department of Residence Director Peter Englin said.

The students are living in “super singles.” They have no roommates and parking nearby in the expansive Towers lot.

Residents of these super singles are paying $4,566 yearly.

The number of students calling Wallace home this semester nearly doubled Englin’s initial occupancy projections of 80 to 85 These numbers were a welcome and financially beneficial surprise, he said.

“[Wallace Hall super singles] will generate close to a quarter million [dollars] in net revenue, and that’s important,” Englin said.

“We’re continually looking at where to invest in our facilities to upgrade them. We need to get money back into our existing facilities. When there’s a net revenue it goes right back into existing facilities.”

Englin said the university decided to move ahead with plans to reopen one of the two popular former residences last January after demand for more on-campus living options – including super singles – increased early last school year.

Wallace, along with the still-vacant Wilson Hall, were filled nearly to capacity although both these halls were entirely shut down in May 2005.

Englin believes “if the numbers justify it, it would be great to open it.”

Beginning last week, upperclassmen looking for a different on-campus living experience began to make their home in the dorm.

For Kenkel, the draw was a chance to be back in the dorms, an experience she missed the past two years while at Frederiksen Court.

“I really wanted to do the dorms again,” Kenkel said. “After my first year in the dorms, I wish I’d done it a second instead of going straight to an apartment.”

Transfer student Meghan Fick, sophomore in biology, said the prospects of peace and quiet in a dorm full of upperclassmen – plus the perk that she’d have her very own room – was what the former Wartburg student liked about Wallace’s super singles.

“Freshman dorms can be kind of crazy,” she said.

“I like being quieter and everything.”

Thrilled with the success of the newest on-campus living option, Englin said the DOR will continue to monitor the demand for similar-style residences. He said he hopes students will continue to respond.

“[The need for] super singles ebbs and flows,” he said. “We believe we offer something very different from the off-campus options.”