MU Residential Life offered about half the amount of contracts for the 2012-13 school year to students currently living in the residence halls compared to last year. There were only about 1,000 students who were able to renew their contracts with Residential Life, and there are more than 300 students on the waiting list, Residential Life Director Frankie Minor said.
One of the reasons for limited on-campus housing options is that numerous residence halls have been upgraded. Residential Life provides about 430 spaces at Campus View apartments, also called Tiger Diggs or extended campus.
“Even with those extra 432 spaces, we have one residence hall off-line, Mark Twain Hall, right now,” Minor said. It is closed for its renovation. So, we have a little bit less capacity on campus.”
Mark Twain Hall is going to be closed for another year and a half, and it is scheduled to be completed fall 2013. Johnston Hall will be also closed for renovation beginning spring 2013.
“Last year, we had spaces for about 2,000 returning, current MU students, but this year, it’s only 1,000 contracts,” Minor said. “It is significantly less.”
He also acknowledged that a growing student population is outpacing room supply. Last year, the freshman class size was a little more than 6,100. This year, Minor said there will be an even bigger freshmen population. In the fall of 2012, Minor’s projected enrollment for the freshman class is about 6,400. There will be about 300 more incoming freshman students in MU, a 4.9 percent increase from last year.
There is a significant increase of demand for on-campus capacity, yet roughly the same amount of supply. Less capacity of residence halls, renovation and a growing student population result in short supply of campus housing for students.
The Reserve at Columbia has already signed leases for more than 200 students, said Lauren Byrd, the Reserve’s leasing and marketing manager.
Nam Lee, currently living in South Hall, is a transfer student on Residential Life’s waiting list. She said it is frustrating that she cannot make any decisions until she hears something about her status on the waiting list.
“I woke up at 8:30 in the morning, and the housing contracts were already full,” Lee said.
Minor advises students who are interested in living on campus to put their name on the waiting list.
“If they really do want to live on campus, I would encourage them not to sign the apartment lease right now,” Minor said. “Because typically, the apartment leases, once they sign them they’re binding contracts, and then if we tell people on the waiting list that we now have spaces for them in early May, they probably won’t be able to get out of the apartment contracts.”
The projection for freshman class could be less than 6,400, and if Residential Life can predict that soon enough, then it will allow more students on the waiting list to sign housing contracts.
Meanwhile, Minor encourages students to start shopping around and consider different options.
“The other thing that I would suggest is that they need to begin to explore their off-campus options,” Minor said. “We will continue to keep them updated on the status of the waiting list, but we are not particularly optimistic right now.”
Minor said Residential Life is trying to be realistic about its ability to house all returning students.
“I would love to accommodate as many students as possible who wants to live on campus, but in the last few years, with the size of freshman classes, we’ve been unable to do that,” Minor said.
Residential Life is looking to build one more residence hall since MU has been substantially growing. Even though building another hall was not Residential Life’s original plan, it is hopeful it will find a suitable way to build a new residence hall.
“We just decided to build another new residence hall,” Minor said. “It hasn’t been approved yet, but we are going to be asking permission from the Board of Curators.”