Westgate Hall has shifted from graduate students to new students this fall. Increased numbers of incoming students who requested housing is the reason for the change. However residents of Westgate are not complaining.

Westgate Hall is a smaller building making it easier for students to become acquainted, said Nick Sales, a freshman in electrical engineering and Westgate resident.

“You get to know people better [because Westgate is a smaller],” Sales said. “It is a lot closer to the rest of campus than RCA is.”

Residents share a bathroom between every two rooms and, Sales said, it has not been a problem yet as far as needing the bathroom when someone else was using it.

Westgate Hall fit what the Department of Residence needed for this year.

“The Department of Residence made a group decision based on the the number of male housing that was needed and the graduate students returning that requested residence,” said Doug Gruenwald, complex manager of Towers.

The few graduate students who lived in Westgate and requested housing for this year were moved to Buchanan Hall.

Westgate has been in use for approximately 40 years and has alternated between graduate and undergraduate housing through the years. Since the mid to late 1980s Westgate Hall has housed graduate students.

As a result of this year’s change, the Inter-Residence Hall Association is poised to vote at tonight’s meeting on a bill giving Westgate Hall a student government representative.

“They pay Residence Hall Association dues so they should have representation,” said Mike Robert, proposer of the bill.

Currently the south Helser Hall representative has the job of informing Westgate residents of what happens in IRHA, but there is no official representative for Westgate Hall.

Future plans for Westgate and all residence halls will be addressed in the master plan which will be developed in the next several months, Alexander said.

The IRHA will meet at 7 p.m. in the Chessman Lounge of Helser Hall tonight.