Only 12,326 spots available for on-campus housing for Fall semester

There are 12,326 spots available for on-campus housing for the fall 2013 semester and housing services is expecting around 14,700 applicants this year. If you do the math, that sounds like more than 2,000 students will be out of luck. Pamela Schipani, the director of housing services, does not expect that this will be the case.

“I do not anticipate that there will be more students wanting housing than can be accommodated,” Schipani said. The housing department receives between 2,000 and 2,500 cancellations of applications between the time students submit them and the start of the fall semester.

Each year around this time students scramble to pull in their best friends as roommates, keep the old room that they have become accustomed to, or find peace in a single. While some students are crossing their fingers for an optimal choosing time, others still are hoping only to continue living on campus. So, why are over 2000 students applying for housing when they do not actually use it?
Around 200 students take a semester off or transfer. Over 100 students apply for housing, but end up studying abroad. 120 or so students are dismissed for academic reasons. About 100 students change their minds about living on-campus or attending UConn after they have already been assigned a room. Around 80 students switch to a regional campus.

“Out of all the students that cancel, the majority of them apply but simply do not select during housing selection,” Schipani says.

In the case that there are students that need on-campus housing and meet all the requirements to be guaranteed housing, but there is not enough space readily available, UConn gets creative.

“We use study lounges to house students, or move our hall directors off campus and use their apartments for students,” says Schipani.

Sometimes they even ask Resident Assistants to take on a roommate. In this case, the RAs are compensated. These are the sort of tactics that the university had to use in the 2011-2012 school year, when there were not enough spaces for all students.

Hartford Hall RA Mary Beth Miyagawa is responsible for 35 residents on the third floor of Hartford Hall in North. There is one quad in her jurisdiction that used to be a study room. “Now Hartford has no study lounges available,” she said.

Miyagawa has heard that the compensation for RAs that have to take on a roommate is substantial, but taking on a roommate herself would be physically impossible. “My room doesn’t even fit my shoes,” she said.