Browsing: Housing Edition 2023

Moving into a tiny room with a stranger is intimidating. As a freshman, you not only have to deal with finding your classes and enduring the chaos of running the Baylor Line for the first time, but you are also expected to make lifelong friends. Rest assured, you don’t need to learn your roommate’s deepest secrets or memorize their family tree in one day — it’s much easier.

Here are some of the best and worst design choices we make in college. If you find yourself guilty of some of these, it’s OK. We all make mistakes sometimes.

It isn’t that spending time alone is wrong. Everyone needs to recharge. But when “recharging” becomes a go-to activity, we need a paradigm shift. Fulfillment comes through relationships and community; isolation compounds bad habits and leaves us more lonely than ever.

A recent study found that Waco is among the top 10 emerging housing markets in the nation. This statistic isn’t surprising considering the area’s massive increase in popularity, likely due to a combination of Baylor and Magnolia. Growth can be a good thing, but it has presented a new issue for students: more expensive rent.

As students begin to swap shoebox dorm rooms for spacious apartments, let’s look back at some of the most iconic and memorable apartments on television, finding some fun inspiration for our new spaces along the way.

With Memorial and Alexander Halls undergoing construction this year and Allen and Dawson Halls being slated for next, a renovation of Kokernot is still in the distance. After living in Kokernot my freshman year, I can safely say the residence hall needs major updates.

Choosing where you want to live after moving off campus is a big and sometimes difficult decision. One of the first steps is determining whether you want to live in a house or an apartment. While it will largely depend on your individual wants and needs, two Baylor students weighed in on why they decided to live where they do.

Nichole Bekken, project manager of construction services, said she began planning for the $7.5 million renovation of both Allen and Dawson halls following the Board of Regents budget approval for the year in May. She said she is focused on creating community spaces that will enhance the connections between the LEAD Living-Learning Community—which is the community currently in Dawson—and the IMPACT LLC, following a fall 2022 merger of the two.

Making Baylor feel like home can be an awfully difficult transition, especially when it’s 5,000 miles away from family and any kind of familiarity. Despite the inherent challenge, Cami Benedetti of Mendoza, Argentina, and Sergio Rodríguez of Madrid, Spain have found their new sense of home through the warmth and devotion of Baylor students and faculty.