MU now has the fastest-growing student population in the Association of American Universities.

And that’s an admirable title — for now.

Although year after year of record-breaking freshman class numbers has brought a lot of positives to the university in terms of finances, an increase in student diversity, a larger student population and, by extension, a larger interest in MU from high school graduates, having more students definitely has come with a few negatives as well.

One of the biggest issues that has stemmed from these larger freshmen classes is the strain on the Department of Residential Life to house more and more students each year. MU barely has enough room for returning students on campus, let alone the freshmen still on their way to MU. Because these strains on Residential Life come quickly and painfully, there is not a lot of time for preparation on how to deal with these situations, provoking Residential Life to create short-term plans to fix a long-term problem.

And that’s not the fault of Residential Life. When a freshmen class with hundreds of new students more than last year’s record class pours in, it’s necessary to resort to last-minute accommodations. But they shouldn’t have to.

Although it’s phenomenal for MU as whole that it is the fastest growing AAU university in the country, this is a title that only needs to be held temporarily, for the health of the university. To be frank, if MU keeps expanding at the rate it has been, the university is going to have a lot more problems aside from housing new freshmen. The state already can’t pay its bills to the university as it is.

If we had unlimited resources and magical residence halls that we could conjure out of thin air whenever necessary, this wouldn’t be an issue. But the fact of the matter is that these resources are limited and we’re pressed for them, as well as space, already. We cannot increase exponentially.

We’re not interested in changing admissions requirements, but one idea might be to branch out to more states for recruitment, which would bring in more money with fewer bodies.

Next year’s enrollment numbers are expected to break away from this trend because high schools will be churning out smaller graduating classes. This will bring fewer freshmen into MU, but more importantly, it’s going to give MU some time to come up with a long-term plan on how to deal with these larger student populations in the near future.