Increasing enrollment at Ole Miss causes changes to student housing

Minor Hall, pictured, along with Ridge North and Burns Hall, are the University's newest residence halls.  These three residence halls opened in the fall of 2012 to accommodate the increasing enrollment at Ole Miss.

Some Ole Miss sophomores and upperclassmen may be looking off-campus for a place to live next fall.  With a steadily increasing enrollment and a freshmen residency requirement, housing officials find themselves in a predicament as to where to put all these freshmen.  As a result, they had to make decisions about which upperclassmen housing options would stay and which would go.

Jennifer McClure, Assistant Director for Marketing for Student Housing, explains that the changes are not as drastic as some may think.  According to McClure, the only real change is that Crosby Hall will not be able to house sophomore sorority communities.  The residential colleges and university apartment complexes, including Northgate Apartments, Campus Walk, and The Village, will still accommodate non-freshmen.

There are, however, two changes being made to Northgate Apartments.  The first change is that the university could not renew many of the current Northgate residents’ contracts.  This is because the university has to house certain scholarship students on-campus. The university will be using Northgate to accommodate Ole Miss Opportunity Scholars.  These are scholarship recipients who must live on-campus during their sophomore year.

The second change to Northgate is actually tearing part of it down.  The Monday after commencement, the university will tear down two of the Northgate buildings to build a residence hall like Minor Hall, which will house many more students.

McClure says this is not the first time the university has used this strategy.  In order to build Minor Hall, Ridge North, and Burns Hall, the university tore down Miller Hall.  These three residence halls now house 862 freshmen.

McClure explains the reasoning behind the change, saying, “Again, we will be taking something that takes up a lot of space but doesn’t house many people, and put a much more space-efficient structure on that piece of land.”

McClure says the university’s strategy is to accommodate the growing number of freshmen while looking ahead to house more upperclassmen in the future.  Mary Katherine Graham, Teaching Assistant in the Patterson School of Accountancy, thinks this strategy is a good one.

Graham says, “Living on campus is an important growing experience for freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors, alike.  I lived on campus all four year of undergrad until I started my graduate program, and I am so glad I had that experience.  I hope the university will follow through with its strategy for providing housing options to upperclassmen so that other students can have the same experience I did.”

For more on the university's strategy and the importance of upperclassmen living on campus, view a clip from Al's interview with Jennifer McClure, below.

Sources may be contacted at:
Jennifer McClure, Assistant Director for Marketing, Student Housing - jlmcclur@olemiss.edu
Mary Katherine Graham, Teaching Assistant in the Patterson School of Accountancy - mkgraha1@go.olemiss.edu