A discrepancy of about 2,600 spaces has caused concern among students applying for on-campus housing as more than 400 undergraduates registered for housing compared to last year.
The Rutgers University Student Assembly welcomed guest speaker Joan Carbone, the executive director of residence life, on Thursday at their bi-monthly meeting at the Student Activities Center on the College Avenue campus to discuss the state of student housing in the upcoming year.
“The lottery registration ended with 10,600 students registered,” Carbone said. “But, we have less than 8,000 continuing spaces.”
But many students register requesting a specific residence hall and then drop out of the lottery if they don’t receive their preference, she said.
“There are a good many students who won’t get housing but the goal this year is to offer students hotels by March when we let them know we don’t have room for them after the double room sign up,” Carbone said.
Three hundred sixty students agreed to live in Crowne Plaza Hotel in Somerset last fall. This year, more students may have to live in hotels since an additional 400 continuing students requested housing, according to an article in The Daily Targum.
“We’re thinking about two possibilities: going back to the Crowne Plaza or the hotels in that area and have students move back into campus as vacancies are available,” Carbone said. “Or, find hotels in Piscataway, whose rooms are more suite-like and have them stay in those rooms permanently for the year.”
Housing is working to resolve a lot of the problems that occurred with hotels last year, including transportation to campus and having to go on-campus to eat dinner, she said. They are also considering building more residence halls and apartments.
“We have a housing shortage and a growing number of new students. Next year, we will have 300 more first-year students and 100 more transfer students,” Carbone said. “We plan to go to the [Board of Governors], maybe in March, with a proposal to build 2,000 spaces [with] 1,500 on Livingston [campus] and 500 on Busch [campus].”
The 1,500 proposed apartments on Livingston campus would all have four single bedrooms with a living room and two bathrooms. Housing is considering two areas to build these apartments, Carbone said.
The residence halls proposed for Busch campus are doubles with a bathroom, which are mainly reserved for first-year students, she said. There are several spots in consideration, with the possibility of knocking down Davidson Residence Hall on Busch campus.
“In order for our bonding agents to let us borrow money, we have to show that we can fill these residence halls. Otherwise, they are risking their money on us. Right now we can certainly show them we can fill 2,000 spaces, but we may not be able to show we can fill 4,000 spaces,” Carbone said.
The next RUSA meeting will be at 7 p.m. on Feb. 26, which will include another opportunity to discuss the RUSA constitution.
Hotels may be used for housing following registration increase
Published: Sunday, February 15, 2009
Updated: Sunday, February 15, 2009
Be the first to comment on this article!