Feb. 16, 2002

By Sarah Rice
Kansas State Collegian

MANHATTAN, Kan. (U-WIRE) - The University of Utah has been transformed from a typical university into a highly secured home for Olympic athletes.

Sarah Morton, sophomore, said the changes began as early as summer 2000 when new townhouse style residence halls were built to house athletes from around the world.

Students moved from the old residence halls, built in the 1950s, to the spacious village residence halls.

Morton said that while living in the new residence halls, massive construction sites sprung up.

"They were doing construction forever," she said. "Orange cones have been everywhere since last spring."

Next, students began to see extra security measures.

"The big concrete barriers and fences were put up in November," Morton said. "It was pretty scary when this is my home."

In December, students living in the new residence halls were forced to move back to the old building.

"They hired a moving company to move all of our stuff," Morton said. "They had to start getting the Olympic village ready."

While living in the old residence halls for the three weeks during the Olympic games, students are not required to pay rent, however, they have no cafeteria.

Students will not move back into the residence halls until early April since the Paralympic Games run during March.

"The weird part is moving back in," Morton said. "Some people are staying in the old dorm because they don't want to move again."

Another change came with the elimination of over 500 parking spots. With 90 percent of students commuting, a big impact was seen.

"They just started taking entire parking lots," Morton said. "They closed off an entire road. People had to come like two hours early to class."

The city did expand public transportation to include the university, which alleviated some of the problems, Morton said.

"A ton of people started using buses," she said. "I think it is a positive thing in the future."

Not only did the physical campus change, but so did classes. With a month-long break in the middle of the semester, teachers had to be creative with their lesson plans.

"We went to class for three weeks," Morton said. "Then, we were bombarded with mid-terms, finals week times 10."

BreAnna Valdez, junior, said her classes were pointless before the break.

"The first month we didn't really do anything," she said. "Once we get back, there will be a lot of work."

Now that the Olympics have arrived, students are working for the Salt Lake Olympic Committee as parking supervisors, drivers and information desk employees.

The university newspaper, The Chronicle, was paid $175,000 to print the Olympic Record, an official newspaper of the Olympic village, seven days a week, editor in chief Matt Canham said.

"I think they had to give us a break since they have so many college-age people working for them," Morton said. "They couldn't have pulled off the Olympics without us."