Bids for the responsibility of hosting the XXXIII Olympiad have fallen to five cities: Los Angeles, Budapest, Hamburg, Paris and Rome.

While the conversation is years from flourishing in the Biola atmosphere, the consideration of the games returning to Los Angeles brings hope, as well as concern, to Biola students. Students look forward to potential job opportunities, but remain wary of Biola’s involvement in housing athletes for the Games.

HOUSING ATHLETES

This past summer, Biola joined with the city of La Mirada in hosting nearly 300 athletes competing in the Special Olympics World Games in Los Angeles 2015, utilizing approximately 1,000 dorm rooms and the Caf to house and feed them all.

“We have housing that’s available in the summer and we made that available for whoever [the Special Olympics] wanted to bring our way and that included…some [athletes] from Macau, [China]…and some were from Russia,” said Brian Shook, administrative director in the Office of the President.

Biola was selected to house athletes for a few days. However, this year’s Games came with particular challenges, as several athletes wandered from their temporary housing and went missing from their Inglewood hotel the night after the Games ended.

Fortunately, Biola did not experience any large mishaps, accredited to Campus Safety’s oversight and Biola’s administration in helping make sure athletes had everything they needed during their stay on campus, Shook said.

“I didn’t hear of any mishaps, I’m not aware of any,” Shook said. “We have such a great Campus Safety group — they have eyes and ears everywhere. We’re definitely watching out for everyone, and everything went very, very well.”

WORKING WITH STUDENTS

If Los Angeles is chosen to host the Olympics for a third time, students can expect a need in the communities surrounding Los Angeles to offer assistance and paid work. The Olympics, if held in Los Angeles, would create over 100,000 available jobs for students should it mirror the 2012 Olympics in London, according to Evening Standard.

Human Resources benefits coordinator Lindsay Sehi said that on-campus jobs are willing to work with students’ schedules, and therefore more students would prefer to work on campus than with the Olympics. Students looking for summer employment would be interested in working with 2024 athletes, but are likely to be concerned with the job’s convenience.

“We understand that school is a number one priority, so we’re more understanding with schedules,” Sehi said. “I think school jobs are just more convenient.”

ACCOMODATING STUDENTS

Should students choose to stay over the summer for more job opportunities with the potential Olympics, Biola can provide accommodations with summer housing.

“[If working with the Olympics was] something related to my field that I would be interested in, it would be an awesome opportunity,” said Caelan Tiongson, a junior public relations major and Biola basketball guard/forward.

Along with the possibility of potential job opportunities for Los Angeles inhabitants, there is also a sense of unity at the prospect of hosting the 2024 games.

Junior public relations major Jessica Ogunduyile expressed her excitement for the possibility to witness the Olympics.

“I think that that would build so much unity and pride in the country,” Ogunduyile said. “I think that would be really really cool.”