Freshman arrive on campus in Chestnut Hill with laptops, Xbox’s and TV’s ready to study

Computers, TV’s, microwaves, fridges and boxes of clothes are unloaded on the sidewalk at Fourniers Hall. It is moving in day at Chestnut Hill College.

Older students, members of the college’s sports teams are also on hand to help get the boxes to the rooms.

There are tables set up in the hallway for students to get all sorts of practical things done. At Station One freshmen receive their ID cards. A little further down the hall they can sign up for cable TV. Nine out of ten do, a Comcast representative tells NewsWorks. Comcast offers special student packages that cost between $30 and $40 a month.

Making dorm life comfortable

Jennifer Thorpe is the CHC director of Residential Life. She says the whole campus is wireless and everyone has access to it. She can’t imagine not having wifi anymore. The usage gets higher and higher so in the past six months two of the halls got an upgrade to keep up with the demand.

Thorpe says students are bringing more computers and electronics to school and that’s putting a demand on the older resident halls. Earlier this week the campus experienced an large power outage.

Matching room mates

Thorpe also runs a sort of match.com for freshmen. Before moving in students are asked to fill in an online survey. She uses the surveys to determine roommate assignments. “It is easy to do because we are small with only 250 freshman”.

Although she strives to get the roommate assignment process computerized next year she also hesitates to turn it to technology to make the decisions of who has to live together.

Settling in

It is busy inside the residential halls, freshmen carry boxes to their dorm rooms. Parents help with the unpacking. On this day everything goes very smoothly.

Scormy Kelly from New Jersey says that she is very excited because this is her first time moving out. She packed everything she could possible need on a daily basis. As she stand in front of her bed with a large pillow that reads “Up All Night”, she goes over the list she brought: Clothes, food and a lots of coffee.

A couple of rooms down the hall Kevin Dougherty is seen installing the TV set for his son. Shaun Dougherty and his roommate Dexter Harris agreed on sharing expenses of their entertainment needs. Dexter will take care of cable bills while Harris will purchase an Xbox. The roommates expect to spent a lot of time playing video sports games. But, they add, the value playing the real game as well. Both freshmen will play on the school’s basketball team.

Sandra and Adrian Harris Sr. from South Jersey stand in the room of their son. Adrian Jr. is all set up. “It is a life experience” his dad explains. His mother add to that: “He is basically on his own now”.