Students who are taking summer classes at Southeast Missouri State University have the option to live on campus during the summer. However, there will be a few differences from living in the dorms during the regular school year.

According to director of Residence Life, Dr. Bruce Skinner, students will have access to some of the same things that they would during the school year, but hours will change.

"During the summer most things stay the same, but we don't run things 24 hours over the summer," Skinner said. "Mailing is open. Vending services, recreational center is open. We still have RA's and hall directors on duty."

According to Skinner, the summer is a combination of both residence hall students who are taking summer classe, and a large camps and conference program.

"We will have students who are living on campus during the summer and taking summer classes, and predominantly we have them live in Towers North, because we typically have somewhere under 50 students living on campus over the summer," Skinner said. "It fluctuates every year."

Skinner said the change in Pell Grant eligibility might affect the number of students taking summer courses and staying on campus.

"Last summer there was eligibility for Pell grants, but this summer there is no eligibility for Pell grants [for the summer semester]," Skinner said. "So that will drive the numbers down, but usually we see under 50 residence hall students."

According to Skinner, more than 3,000 camp participants stay in the Towers Complex from mid-June through the end of July.

"The campers are predominantly from high school or middle school," Skinner said. "There are academic camps such as Ace Quiz Bowl. The ones people are more commonly familiar with are the basketball team camps, cheer camps, National Cheerleading Association [and] dance camps."

Campers are moved to dorms on the south campus when the Towers Complex is under maintenance.

"What we try to do is schedule where our maintenance is going to be," Skinner said. "For example, last year we moved camps to the other side, meaning Merick, Henderson, Vandiver, because we needed to take certain space because we were doing work on Towers West and North. If all four towers are open, we prefer to have camps stay in Towers because of the dining capacity we have."

According to Skinner, everyone who lives on campus dines in Towers Cafeteria and The University Center. The franchise restaurants such as Papa Johns and Chick-fil-A are not open during the summer.

"The University Center is open for lunch, but there is not a breakfast or dinner option because it's just there to serve faculty, staff and visitors because we have all the camps and students that live on north campus," Skinner said.

Chelsie Grothaus will be a camp coordinator during the summer. She will be living on campus during the summer for the first time.

"I will be living on campus from May 29th to the end of summer vacation," Grothaus said.

According to Grothaus, a big difference living on campus during the summer will be the fact a lot of students will be gone.

"Since there aren't many residents, I'm sure I will become close with the people I work with, which is what I am looking forward to," Grothaus said. "The food choices are scarce since there aren't a lot of people here for the summer months."

Summer students move into their dorms May 14, the Monday following finals week for the spring semester.