There are 200 more students living on campus this year than last year, which has increased the number of people who live in over-crowded rooms.

Crystal Bouhl, assistant director of University Housing, said nearly one in every 10 students reside in over-assigned rooms. She said 3,925 students live in the residence halls and facilities.

“We have approximately 125 students occupying a third bed in a triple room or a quad room in over-assigned housing,” Bouhl said. “When you factor in the other two students in the triple rooms, we have an approximate total of 360 students in over-assigned housing.”

Advertisement

People in over-assigned rooms are offered new placements based on how many students withdraw from the university or move out of housing, according to housing’s website. Although housing predicts rooms will be available at the beginning of the fall semester, the process of students receiving new placement can be indefinite.

Jazzman Walker, an undecided freshman from St. Louis, said compromising was a large part of living in an over-assigned dorm, because each person does not have his or her own amenities.

“You have to share with your roommates and that is weird at first because you don’t really know each other,” Walker said. “But since there are only two closet spaces and two desks, if you don’t communicate with your roommates about sharing someone has to do without.”

Lashay Mays, an undecided freshman from St. Louis, said it is challenging to make an over-assigned room comfortable to live in.

“Over-assigned triples have the same amount of space as rooms with two people living in them, and the way they’re set up initially isn’t in the most efficient manner,” Mays said. “So you and your roommates have to move things around just so you all have enough space.”

In order to accommodate these living arrangements, each student living in an over-assigned room is given a weekly $25 refund from the university, which is paid to their bursar account. This reimbursement could cost the university about $198,000 if all the students remained in over-assigned rooms for the fall term.

“The housing staff works together to come up with new ideas for students because overbooked rooms are extremely common in the industry,” Bouhl said.

Advertisement*

As a solution, a plan was created to demolish the three tallest residence halls: Neely, Schneider and Mae Smith and replace them with newer facilities that have more rooms, according to the website.

“The planning and development is ongoing and we anticipate presenting materials for scope and budget to the Board of Trustees in the near future,” Jon L. Shaffer, director of University Housing, stated in an email.

According to the website, removing the towers to build new facilities is expected to take nearly 10 years.

Muriel Berry can be reached at [email protected], on Twitter @muriel_berry_DE or at 536-3311 ext. 254