House rules

On-campus housing tightens as TU expands

The impact of TU’s role as the University System of Maryland’s primary growth institution will be immediately felt by students wanting to live on campus next fall.

With approximately 400 more first-year students expected to enroll in fall 2006 than in fall 2005, Housing and Residence Life is compelled to limit new freshmen to four consecutive terms of on-campus housing.

Only students with 59 or fewer units at the end of fall term 2005 will be guaranteed on-campus housing for fall 2006, provided they return their housing contract and housing deposit by March 15. A limited number of students with 60 to 89 units will be eligible for on-campus housing; students residing on campus with 90 or more units will not be eligible to return. 

Next year’s student body will increase by 800 full-time equivalent (FTE) students, which translates to about 1,000 actual additional students, as not all students take a full-time course load. The dramatic one-year spike in enrollment means less housing will be available for returning upperclassmen, to ensure that all new freshmen have a chance to live on campus.

“Part of our commitment to a strong student experience means offering on-campus housing, in particular, to freshmen,” says Jerry Dieringer, assistant vice president and director of Housing and Residence Life.

Next year's freshman class expected to rise by 400 students, to about 2,700. With approximately 76 percent of new freshmen typically requesting university housing, TU needs to provide about 300 more beds for freshmen next fall.

Housing and Residence Life has undertaken several initiatives to help students adapt to immediate housing changes. It worked with Millennium Hall, a privately owned and operated apartment complex located on campus, to give priority to students who were no longer eligible for university housing. The off-campus housing locator service, a database that brings together those seeking housing with those with property to lease, relocated to Housing and Residence Life from Campus Life in December.

Housing and Residence Life is currently developing a preferred off-campus communities list, an effort to identify key off-campus housing options for TU students.

For the long term, Dieringer notes that TU plans to add new campus housing incrementally through 2016 to help meet increased demand.

“The entire university community will feel the impact of enrollment growth significantly over the next decade,” he says. “Student housing is just one of the first areas to visibly feel these changes.”

Story by Stuart Zang/Photo by Sofia Silva

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