It’s no secret enrollment at MU progressively skyrocketed in recent years. The housing issue hasn’t taken place behind closed doors, either.
Well, to be more exact, there aren’t enough doors to hide behind on campus. Thousands of students experienced a housing crisis their freshman year at MU. The experience could have ranged anywhere from calling MU multiple times over the summer, panicking about a place to live in the fall to moving in with a peer advisor.
MU responded by making off-campus housing available through Residential Life, but the experience just isn’t the same. Even with a PA and a small student community, getting acquainted with the campus and making friends just isn’t the same in apartments that are likely more isolated than residence halls.
The idea to construct a new residence hall is circulating. We fully support this idea.
There are thousands more students at MU than was projected in the Residential Life Master Plan, so the plan should be adjusted. Even if the high school graduation rate does decline, MU is stepping up its game to recruit more out-of-state students and increase cash flows. If anything, the enrollment total will likely stagnate, not decrease.
We’re all for welcoming more people into the MU community, but MU needs to be ready to accommodate them in every way possible.
The temporary off-campus housing options are just that: temporary. A new, permanent solution needs to be pursued.
Since constructing a completely new housing structure will be a timely and expensive endeavor, we also urge Residential Life to explore adding rooms to residence halls due for construction under the current Master Plan. Even five more rooms in a residence hall could mean 10 happier students.
Recruiting students MU doesn’t have room for sends a negative message and could create a negative experience for those students. Nobody wants to spend their summer frantically finding a place to live or getting a letter asking them to live off campus to make room for incoming freshmen.
Additionally, those students forced to move off-campus due to housing restraints may not always have cars, and with the bus system falling apart, this could pose a serious problem for students getting to class on time and joining student organizations.
But it’s done. MU needs to make more room for students on campus, and we applaud them for looking at long-term solutions.