Graduate students still looking for somewhere to live next year can now take up an opportunity to live in a community of upper division students just like them in Wallace Hall this coming fall.

Wallace Hall is welcoming a graduate and upper division student community to its building once again to better serve graduate populations.

Pete Englin, director of residence, said this is a great opportunity for the university to better serve graduate students.

“We’re excited about it,” Englin said. “It never feels good when we can’t serve part of our student population. That’s what we’re here for.”

Contracts are from August to May — however students can be let out of their contract at any time if they receive an internship, graduate early, or for other academic purposes. Contracts will be about $5694 for the academic year, with all utilities included.

In 2005 when Englin signed on as director of residence, residence halls Wallace and Wilson were both empty, and Englin recognized a need to provide graduate and professional students with an environment focused on students who have been at the university awhile.

“So we made the decision to re-open one of the houses out there for grad students,” Englin said. “The first year we had 128, the following year we had 300 and after that 600. It was a great success.”

After that however, then the freshman classes took off in enrollment rates, resulting in Wallace and Wilson being converted back to undergraduate housing. Englin said it was unfortunate that the university had to go back to underserving the graduate population.

“In the past seven years we served 300-325 graduate students out of 5000,” Englin said. “We used to house well over 1000.”

Recently there has been a decrease in undergraduate numbers, and Englin says for the 2018-19 school year, the university is anticipating to have under 36,000 students enrolled. With this decline, the decision was made to take Wallace Hall with 300 single rooms to provide housing to graduate students once again.

Englin said he spent a lot of time at Graduate and Professional Student Senate (GPSS) meetings during the previous transition, and many students were unhappy with losing the space. Similarly, he met with undergraduate students currently living in Wallace who were unhappy about losing the space. 

However, Englin said after meeting and discussing their reasoning for converting Wallace back to graduate housing, students understood the necessity for this service, and he appreciated their cooperation.

“We’re thankful to the students who advocated for their space,” Englin said. “We’re also thankful to the students who came to an understanding of why we we’re making this change.”

For undergraduate students who might be wanting to live in Wallace next fall, this still leaves available space for them to live. 

The spaces designated for graduate students are single person living spaces, complete with a lofted bed, desk, desk chair, two wardrobes, dresser and micro fridge. The rooms are scheduled to be renovated with new flooring, paint, lighting and windows this summer. Each floor has common space and a kitchenette, and the community has a fitness center, convenience store and additional common space. 

Wallace graduate housing is officially available for graduate students who are interested to move in this fall, and can register on AccessPlus. 

“Hopefully this fits a specific need for them and we’re able to better serve our graduate population,” Englin said.

Graduate and Professional Student Senate (GPSS) Vice President George Micheal Weston commented on the development saying this can be positive for graduate students — particularly for students who are new to Iowa State, whether that be transfer students, first year students or anyone new to Iowa State.

“I think it would depend on the people getting into the housing,” Weston said. “This could be really great for students first coming to Iowa State.”

GPSS President Vivek Lawana talked about this opportunity at the February GPSS meeting, and advised students take the offer.

For more information on Wallace graduate housing, click here.