With nearly 400 students in temporary housing this fall, certain questions are raised about the housing situation at Iowa State. Part of this situation is due to the steady increase in students living on campus.

Another large cause of this overcrowding is the Master Plan initiated by the Department of Housing and Food Service (formerly the Department of Residence).

The Master Plan is the Department of Housing and Food Service’s attempt to tailor fit different areas of residence and segregate students by their lifestyle preferences.

The plan came about because students said they were willing to pay more than the “current rate.” I’m curious as to what students had the extra money to toss around for the changes in living, but whomever they were they certainly couldn’t account for the 10 percent raise in tuition rates.

Already it seems the Master Plan has issues that have to be rethought for what students want and yet can afford.

An early step in the Master Plan brought us Hawthorn Court, a dorm away from the dorms, which was to give students a feeling of independence. This independence being defined by Hawthorn residence as living in apartments “on their own” and by that meaning having the university build a market next door because the drive would be too stressful.

The next step in the Master Plan called for making Towers a mirror of Hawthorn Court as Wilson Hall was turned into all double-as-single rooms for upperclassmen who wanted more privacy and thought Hawthorn Court wasn’t expensive enough, yet didn’t want the hassle of living in an apartment.

Once a meal plan is figured into the cost of a room in Wilson, the cost comes to almost double that of living in a double occupancy bedroom in Hawthorn Court.

This was a large cause of the increase of students in temporary housing as one-eighth of the living space that was usually taken up by new students was eliminated, but luckily the university still manages to pick up room charges from all of the students without showing any results.

Following this, the Master Plan calls for taking down at least one of the Towers because of “significant deferred maintenance.”

It doesn’t take a lot of reading between the lines to see that Iowa State knows Towers is falling down and should have been torn down years ago.

Even this is being put off though, because the Department of Housing and Food Service recently figured out that perhaps removing one-fourth of Towers would have been a bad idea as no new housing in the Towers area has been set up.

By changing Towers into apartment-style living, Iowa State has failed to realize that upperclassmen are going to be further pressed for money with the tuition increase and simply won’t want to be so far from campus as a real apartment becomes cost competitive with the new residence changes.

Taking this a step further, parking at apartment complexes is often quite open where the residence hall parking seems to be shrinking, as any student out late Sunday night could attest to.

Even though they are adding more residence halls directly on campus, the parking situation has yet to be addressed even as more students are forced to find spaces for their cars further away from campus. This isn’t a reasonable option for students that choose to, or need to find jobs around Ames.

While many older students dislike living on campus, some still choose to live there, but the Master Plan seems to be focused on making residence more attractive for the new students while pushing the older students off campus into apartments.

The Master Plan however, assumes that after students start living on campus at RCA or UDA they will want to then move to the smaller dorms that are further away from campus and cost more. Instead of being set in stone, the Department of Housing and Food Service should be willing to change the plan to fit not only the increase in students, but also the wants and needs of current and future students.

Blaine Moyle is a junior in English from Des Moines.