Larger incoming class raises housing concerns

The Department of Student Housing has had to already make changes in order to prepare to house incoming freshman.

With the University of Mississippi anticipating one of its largest incoming freshman classes, many current students are becoming concerned about housing.

According to an earlier publication by The Daily Mississippian, freshman classes have grown by 37 percent from 2009 to 2013. With the number of students continuing to rise, more space is needed to house them.

In response, Student Housing has already made some changes for the 2014-2015 school year.

First, construction to build a new residence hall will start after the 2014 spring semester. Originally, the new dormitory was planned to be built before the fall of 2016. However, the current housing options would not be able to accommodate the projected 2015 freshman class, so the new building is now slated to be completed by the fall of 2015 to house these students.

The new dormitory will follow the designs of the Ridge residence halls with four floors and will have space for 304 students.

Perhaps the largest change to students is the reallocation of beds on campus. On-campus housing will only be offered to freshman and non-freshman participating in certain campus groups next year. Many beds previously offered to students in Crosby Hall, Northgate Hall, Residential College South, and Luckyday Residential College will no longer be open to non-freshman.

Previously, many sophomore sorority women lived in Crosby Hall. Now, many have to find housing alternatives off-campus, leaving some women feeling upset.

Whitney Young, a freshman member of Phi Mu, believes that the university is letting its students down with not offering on-campus housing to non-freshman, especially within Crosby Hall.

"Sororities usually live there on the same floor [in Crosby Hall] to get to know each other better, but now that can't happen. It's disappointing to me and my sisters,” says Young.

Around 565 to 575 beds in Crosby Hall, Northgate Hall, Residential College South, and Luckyday Residential College will now only be available to freshman. These numbers also don't include spaces reserved for their respective Community Assistants.

Some students like Young believe the university should be handling the housing situation differently.

"Housing should be set aside for upperclassman, or more dorms should be built with more floors. The university needs to be able to house all its students,” says Young.

We sat down with Dalton Capps, a Community Assistant in Burns Residence Hall, to learn about other concerns spurred from the university enrolling more students.

Although Student Housing has begun planning out enough space for future incoming freshman, many current students feel that these accommodations come at the expense of their own housing.