When Tony Munoz transferred to Oakland University, the last thing he expected to do was spend the semester living in an off-campus hotel.

However, due to the increase in male housing applicants for the 2011 school year, he, along with 100 other male OU students displaced at the beginning of the semester, were sent to live in the Extended Stay Homestead Suites on University Drive for the duration of the fall semester.

Originally from Flint, Munoz moved to OU without knowing anyone on campus. He planned on using his experience on campus and in the dorms as a resource to make friends. That opportunity was limited, however, when he realized there wasn’t any room for him in the dorms.

“The biggest thing I dislike is that I have to go all the way across campus for food,” Munoz, a sophomore nursing major, said.

He also complained about the hotel atmosphere, saying that the halls are rarely ever active with students and he misses the expected residence hall programming that comes along with living on campus.

Getting ‘buggy’

Though he enjoyed living in the hotel at first, his frustrations increased when he woke up one morning with red bumps on his arms.

“All of the signs I had pointed to bed bugs,” he said. “I had these bites on my arms and there were bugs on the box springs with my blood inside. The hotel moved me into another room and I haven’t had any problems there.”

Munoz said the hotel confirmed the bites were in fact, from bed bugs, but they later declined to confirm these claims when interviewed by The Oakland Post. He has since been treated with medications.

“I was sick and after (the bites) happened, it made things 100 times worse,” he said.

This isn’t OUs first experience with the bugs though. Over the summer, it was reported that one of the units in the University Student Apartments had a minor incident.

Frank Moss, OU maintenance manager, said that in his 34 years of working for the university, he can only recall four instances of the bugs on campus. Moss said they have always been handled according to policy.

“All of our custodians have been trained on how to identify signs of bedbugs when they’re in rooms cleaning them over the summer, or when they’re vacant,” he said.

“With everything that’s been in the media, we’ve gotten lots of calls, but, except on rare occasions, they never turn out to be bedbugs … if we get a call, we go check it out and if there’s a possibility, we’ll call an exterminator.”

Because of Munoz’s experiences, he is unsure whether or not he will apply to live on campus again next year.

Making students a home

University Housing recently appointed a permanent residence assistant to live with the students in the hotel.

Owen O’Connor, a junior majoring in elementary education, has been working in the residence halls for years, though he was just appointed to his position as Homestead Resident last Monday.

Though he says there currently aren’t any dorm room activities in the halls just yet, he’s hoping to bring the on-campus environment to the off-campus location.

Living on the first floor of the hotel, O’Connor said it’s difficult to interact with the students because they’re scattered throughout the building instead of on the same floor.

“It’s difficult to manage because they’ve all been everywhere, but they’re all being really good so far,” he said. “Housing has done a good job though.”

Since initially starting off with 100 displaced students, roughly 76 students have been since placed on campus.

According to Mary Beth Snyder, vice president of student affairs, a new facility plan has been drafted and will soon be presented to the Board of Trustees that hopes to accommodate 450 students. It is projected to be a horse shoe-shaped building by Vandenberg Hall.

“(The new building) will be good to take pressure off the halls and to allow students to have single rooms and to give some special living and learning environments,” she said.