‘An unexpected number.’ UNC Charlotte needs to find housing for 440 students
About 440 UNC Charlotte students still need university-run housing ahead of the start of the new semester that begins next month, university officials said Thursday.
“It’s an unexpected number” that still require such housing this time of year, said Christy Jackson, the university’s senior director of communications. She said more students who applied for housing decided to stick with it than the university had anticipated.
When asked if all 440 students would have university-run housing either on- or off-campus by the time the semester starts on Aug. 22, Jackson said, “that is absolutely our goal.”
However, an email sent Monday from the university’s Housing and Residence Life office to affected students, which was obtained by the Observer, said: “As a result of the high demand and a lack of cancellations that we typically see by this point in the summer, we anticipate that we will not be able to assign you to a space prior to the start of fall semester.”
An email that went out Thursday clarified the Monday email, Jackson said. She said students were told the university is working to get them housing, and anticipates they will get housing assigned, but “we just don’t have it for you yet.”
The university has about 6,000 beds and about 8,000 housing applicants, she said.
About 1,560 of those applicants later told the university they found other options or dropped out of the housing process, Jackson said. Or some may have applied too late for a June 1 deadline to be guaranteed housing.
It’s common for students to change their minds about housing plans after they apply to live on campus, she added.
Still, the lack of housing availability has left some students and parents fuming.
Ibrahim Khan, whose daughter, Fizza Ibrahim, is a sophomore stuck without a place to live, felt helpless in the face of the school’s housing bureaucracy.
“Why are you overbooked? That’s your fault, not my daughter’s,” he said. “The school should be providing accommodation.”
He also said he’s angry the university hadn’t alerted students sooner.
The university’s housing agreement says students who apply for housing by the June 1 priority application will be guaranteed an on-campus space for the fall, according to a screenshot of the agreement obtained by the Observer.
However, due to the higher than anticipated number of students who applied for housing, and the fewer than anticipated number who canceled their requests, the college placed those it could not house on a wait-list. Anyone who applies after June 1 is automatically put on a wait list.
Enrollment for the fall semester is not finalized, but last fall UNC Charlotte had 30,448 students, university spokeswoman Buffie Stephens said. More than 20% of undergraduate students typically live on campus.
Worried and frustrated
In an interview with the Observer, Student Body President Tatiyana Larson said students are understandably frustrated and worried about being charged fees for housing they might not get to use.
Because of the confusion, the university extended its deadline for canceling housing contracts with no penalty until July 29, Stephens said. Students who cancel by that time will receive a full refund, she said.
Larson encouraged students to look for off-campus options, though she acknowledged choices may be limited.
But Larson also urged understanding of the university’s position. “Housing had no possible way of knowing that they were going to have this many applicants, especially when you don’t really have statistics from the past couple of years due to COVID,” she said.
‘They should have seen this coming’
Larson also wrote about the housing issue on a recent UNC Charlotte Reddit thread.
One Reddit user questioned why the college didn’t predict this. “We are on the tail end of covid now, people are going back to school. They should have seen this coming and should have been ready for it.”
Some students questioned how they’ll be able to attend UNC Charlotte and afford off-campus housing. “Yea I have no idea where I’m going to stay... because I don’t live in Charlotte. I can’t commit to monthly rent, I don’t have job,” one person said on Reddit.
“I don’t have a car, how am I supposed to go off-campus?,” another asked. “... It’s cheaper for me to go on-campus (because) of financial aid.”
Other local colleges have space for students
The Observer reached out to other colleges in the Charlotte region to check on their housing status: Queens University of Charlotte, Johnson C. Smith University, Davidson College and Winthrop University. Only Queens and Davidson responded Thursday.
Queens is not overbooking its dorms, said María del Carmen Flores, vice president of student engagement and dean of students. However, she said the pandemic has been challenging.
“The pandemic is something we’ve never seen before. It’s required so much flexibility, and it’s really thrown a wrench in all of the planning,” she said.
In 2020, the college was all virtual, returning in spring 2021 with reduced capacities, before returning to “normal” numbers, Flores said.
Queens has about 1,000 residence beds, which includes one residence hall that is undergoing renovations. “We’ve been planning really carefully, but we certainly have space for the folks that we need to house for the academic year,” she said.
At Davidson College, spokesman Jay Pfeifer said, “We are able to offer space for all students who want to live on campus.”
Over 90% of the liberal arts college’s students live on campus, so its residential buildings are almost always near capacity. Davidson has 21 residential buildings with a capacity of approximately 1,800 beds.
“We manage occupancy by balancing the number of students who participate in international study with a small number of juniors and seniors who are allowed to live off-campus,” Pfeifer said. “We anticipate that a very small number of students who are currently expected to enroll will change their minds before arriving this fall.”
This story was originally published July 14, 2022 at 5:38 PM.
