KU News Release

KU student housing to open doors earlier to beat the heat

LAWRENCE — To help students and their families beat the heat while moving belongings to campus, the University of Kansas will open the doors to its student housing facilities earlier than planned.

KU’s residence halls, scholarship halls and Jayhawker Towers apartments will open at 6:30 a.m., rather than the previously scheduled 8 a.m. opening time, said Diana Robertson, director of student housing.

On Friday, Aug. 10, the towers will re-open for the fall semester at 6:30 a.m., and on Saturday, Aug. 11, students participating in sorority recruitment move into residence halls and scholarship halls beginning at 6:30 a.m. On Sunday, Aug. 12, all of KU’s residence halls and scholarship halls will re-open for all residents at 6:30 a.m. Suggested arrival times that were previously communicated to students remain in place; these arrival times are not mandatory but rather serve to ease congestion. Anyone is welcome to take advantage of the early move-in hours. KU classes start Thursday, Aug. 16.

“We cannot do anything about the heat index, but we can at least help students and parents avoid the mid-day sun,” Robertson said. “Hopefully giving folks the option to do the heavy lifting at daybreak will make it easier, safer and more comfortable for everyone.”

About 4,500 students are expected to arrive on campus by Sunday to move into their rooms or suites in university student housing. KU offers eight residence halls that range in size from 275 to 900 residents each. Residence halls are high-rise buildings organized in corridors or wings with most residents sharing two-person rooms or four-person suites.

KU is one of the few public universities to offer scholarship halls. KU has 11 such “schol halls” that each house about 50 undergraduate students in a cooperative living arrangement. Residents share cooking, household and hall government responsibilities. A 12th scholarship hall is currently under construction and will open in fall 2008.

Jayhawker Towers is KU’s on-campus apartment complex for single students, typically upperclassmen, non-traditional and transfer students who have completed at least 30 credit hours.

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The University of Kansas is a major comprehensive research and teaching university. University Relations is the central public relations office for KU's Lawrence campus.