The freshman class at the University of Oklahoma this year is already setting records; it is the biggest class in the history of the school. With over 4,100 students, it surpasses last year’s class by nearly one thousand students.
Having so many students come in all at once poses problems in some areas, but also has some benefits for the students themselves.
Troy Young, a resident advisor in Couch Center, says “this year the residence halls are actually at max capacity, which means that there’s pretty much no empty rooms for freshman to move around or for other freshman to move on campus.” He also says that in previous years those empty rooms were used also in the event an emergency. “This year there aren’t as many of those rooms, so it’s just kind of like you have to prioritize and just hope that nothing bad happens.”
Even though Cate Center is slowly becoming less of a dorm, which means less rooms for freshman to live in, and becoming more of an office building, the university is building a new athletic residence hall on the southeast side of campus, which was recently approved by the OU Board of Regents and started construction, that will also be able to house freshman starting in the fall of 2013.
An issue that hits a little closer to home for the students themselves is the nightmare that has become OU parking. Sophomore, Don Caudill says that he has driven around for up to thirty minutes just to find a space.
Lots around campus are constantly full. This includes the housing-only lots around the dorms, and even multipurpose lots that are all the way across campus from the dorms.
Freshman Eduardo Iturregui shares some advice from his own experience with parking, saying, “on the weekends it’s easy, and on the weekends you get a good parking spot because everybody goes home.”
Large classes are also being affected by having so many freshman on campus. Introductory classes are usually large and fill up quickly every year at OU, due to how many people need the credits and also need the class as a prerequisite for another class.
Caudill says one of his classes has become a standing room only class, “Freedom in Greece, its huge. You have to get there like 15 minutes early to get a seat, so it’s terrible. There’s so many people in there.”
Adjusting to a school with so many students can be tough whether you are from a big or small school. But, freshman Michael McCoy says Camp Crimson was the moment he realized just how many people would be joining him at OU. “I was at Camp Crimson, and I was like, ‘man, there’s a lot of people here.’”
At this point in their college career, these freshman have realized the advantages of being around so many people that all have similar goals. Caudill says, “I went to a small division two college before I came here and even coming from there it was a culture shock. I mean, it’s really cool though. Because I’m a really social person so being around a million people like this is just really fun.”
While it may be only halfway through their first semester, many students are hoping that OU will tackle the problems that the large influx of students has caused in terms of housing, parking, and classes. In the meantime, students should adopt the mindset of these freshman boys and take advantage of all the new people just waiting to be met.
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