Ancilla College’s first students to live on campus finished moving in yesterday.
President Ken Zirkle says the students and their families have been pleasantly surprised by the college’s first residence hall, “It would remind you of an upscale hotel because each residence hall room has a bathroom. So you have two students living in a room, except right now we do have a few where we have three living in, but you have your own bathroom and all the amenities that you would find, really, in a nice, upscale hotel.”
Dr. Zirkle says the building was designed for 96 people but ended up accommodating more than a hundred, “Quite frankly, I was hoping for 65 or 70 to open the year, and that we’d fill it next year. I never in my wildest dream thought we’d fill it plus in the very first year.”
He says the residence hall has helped the college bring in students that it couldn’t reach in the past, “We’ve gone so long without a residence hall, and therefore, we were relying strictly on commuters from within about a 25-mile radius. All of the sudden, you’re talking to students from Indianapolis or Chicago or places up in Michigan, that are on campus. It’s a sign of hope, really.”
Ancilla College has around 500 students in total enrolled this year.
Classes start on Monday.
