By: Matthew Raines
The MSA apartment complex located on the back of Milligan’s campus is a series of four two story buildings that serve as housing for Milligan students and until a few years ago housed primarily married students that attended Milligan or Emmanuel School of Religion. In talking to students around campus the ideas about MSA have not gone along the same curve of change. The first myth voiced was that MSA stands for Married Student Housing. Another myth is that Milligan’s policies about MSA have changed as the number of on campus students has increased. The third myth that was heard from students was that this past summer, Milligan kicked all married couples out of MSA in favor of incoming students.
Dean of Student Affairs Mark Fox is in charge of married student housing at Milligan. He quickly put the second myth to rest.
“The policies for the MSA apartments have not changed since 2005,” Fox said as he handed over an application for MSA apartments. “We still do yearly leases and still operate on a need based policy.”
Kate Anderson, director of residence life and housing, provided further clarification.
“MSA is now called Milligan Student Housing. The named was changed several years ago because of the continued increase of non-married students living in the apartments.”
Anderson went on to share that there are 22 out of the 32 apartments filled with undergraduate students and “that number will probably keep going up” as the Milligan community continues to grow.
Milligan’s on-campus undergraduate population has increased from 549 students in 2008 to 600 at the beginning of 2011. When asked if there were options that were being pursued, Anderson answered in the affirmative.
“We are working very closely with the board and other administrative areas of the college to expand the number of on-campus beds. Plans are moving quickly with the objective of having additional beds available for the fall 2013.”
MSA resident assistant Sean Martin appeared to be all for that expansion.
“Most RA’s have 26 residents; I have just over three times that. The amount of residents I have is directly proportional to the number of married students…for every married couple that leaves, I get four more residents.”
In speaking to the issue of Milligan forcing students off campus, Anderson responded, “This summer married students who had already signed a lease were offered significant financial incentive to move off campus. Some accepted the offer and others chose to stay, the choice was up to them.”
Married couples that fit either set of circumstances were unable to be reached for comment.
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