Move-in day for college students can be an exciting time, but for many Kentucky Wesleyan students this Fall semester, this experience occurred with an added twist. Unfortunately, Peeples Hall suffered water damage in the summer months and had to be renovated. This meant that the residential students who were assigned rooms in Peeples had to be relocated.

This year, Wesleyan welcomed in the largest freshman class, as well as the largest number of transfer students that the college has seen in years. Because of this, on-campus housing was nearly full, and there was no place for the Peeples Hall residents to live. Although this could have been disastrous, the housing team quickly cooked up a solution: to put students in nearby hotels until the renovations could be completed.

This temporary housing experience, although unexpected, proved to be a fun adventure for these students. Students were placed in the Fairfield Inn, Comfort Suites, and Hampton Inn. An average of eighty students were living “the suite life” from the start of the semester until the week following Fall Break, when all students were able to move back onto campus. During their time off campus, students were provided free transportation, as faculty and staff volunteered their time to drive shuttles back and forth from the hotels to campus. This way, no student ever worried about missing a meal in the cafeteria or a class.

When asked about her experience living in the hotel, one student remarked how comfortable the beds were, and that she enjoyed her time living off campus. Specifically, she enjoyed having a cleaning service who would vacuum the floor and make her bed every day, which many students don’t get around to doing when living in the dorms.

Now that the hotels are free of Wesleyan students and everyone has moved back into Peeples Hall, they are more than happy to be back living among their fellow Panthers. Thanks to the people involved in remodeling and cleaning up Peeples Hall, as our campus now feels whole again!