In less than a month, MU freshman Lauren Gillespie will head to Columbia to move into her residence hall, though which room is still unknown.
Due to a record-breaking freshman class predicted to be tally more than 6,100 students, the Department of Residential Life has still been unable to find housing for all enrolled freshmen.
Gillespie waited until May 1 to choose what university she would be attending in the fall, which ultimately put her behind in the Residents’ Online Access to Rooms process, which began April 9.
“It is a bit annoying not knowing where I’m living yet,” Gillespie said. “I wasn’t 100 percent sure I wanted to go Mizzou at the time ROAR started, so all the rooms had filled up by the time I accepted my admissions offer.”
Residential Life Director Frankie Minor said it is perfectly normal for incoming freshmen with active contracts to still be without rooms at this time.
“We have got a number of students who are going to be canceling their contracts for a number of reasons, whether it be deciding on a different college or young men who are deciding they will be moving into a fraternity house,” he said.
Residence Halls Association President Chris Rucker said finding housing for incoming freshman is comparable to last year.
“Since the freshman classes have been much bigger than in the past, it has put more stress on our current residential life system,” he said.
Gillespie has been in contact with Residential Life a couple times over the summer to see what she can do to get a room assignment.
“Residential Life told me I can keep checking ROAR until July 25,” Gillespie said. “If I still haven’t found a room by then, they will find one to assign me.”
This date has come and gone, so Gillespie is now counting on Residential Life to keep to its word.
Minor said that as of the week of July 13, there were 450 students still without housing. By the following week, that number had dwindled down to less than 300.
There is also two and a half times more men than women without housing, which is making it harder to accommodate spots for men, but the majority of the cancellations received will be from males.
Minor said a lot of men are using their housing contract as a back-up plan while they decide which fraternity house they want to join. He predicts up to 150 men will be canceling their housing contract in the last two weeks of July.
“We know that all of the students who filled out the housing contract by May 16, which was the priority deadline, will have a space,” Minor said. “The bigger issue is the students who didn’t meet the priority deadline. If they are female we will be able to accommodate many of them, though we don’t know how many. The men we are a little less optimistic about.”
Minor said they have been encouraging students who didn’t meet the priority deadline to explore other options in Columbia because there isn’t a shortage of living arrangements in the city. He understands that most freshmen want to live on campus.
“I’ve been here for 17 years and we have never turned away a freshman from campus housing,” Minor said. “The fact that this freshmen class size is significantly larger has posed challenges for us. If the students met the priority deadline they shouldn’t worry at all.”
