MU adds off-campus housing locations

Off-campus housing for returning students frees up on-campus space for freshman.

By Zachary Murdock

Published Aug. 27, 2010

With a record-breaking freshman class and several residence halls construction and renovation, Residential Life faced space constraints.

According to an MU News Bureau release, 6,160 first-time freshmen are enrolled in classes this fall. With such an increase in the freshman population, Residential Life was forced to restrict some returning and transfer students who wanted to live on campus, Residential Life Director Frankie Minor said. In addition, there was an increase in returning students wanting to live on campus.

Residential Life knew early on there would be a limit on the number of students able to live on campus, Minor said. By May, more than 500 returning and transfer students were on a Residential Life waiting list for campus housing contracts.

In May, Residential Life signed a one-year deal with Campus View Apartments to rent 336 beds and extend the Tiger Diggs option for freshman students in need of housing for this academic year, Minor said. Tiger Diggs is a part of Residential Life’s extended campus options, which include 236 beds at the Mizzou Quads at Campus Lodge.

During the summer, Residential Life offered incentives for returning students to break housing contracts to free up room for incoming freshman. For $500 credited to students’ accounts, Minor said Residential Life wanted to try to see if returning students would give up their space in order to place as many freshmen on campus as possible.

“Our original goal at the time we issued that incentive was about 200 (beds),” Minor said. “Many of us were skeptical that we would get to that number so we upped (the incentive) to $1,000.”

The incentive brought nearly 100 openings to freshmen students attempting to live on campus, Minor said. He also said at this same time, Residential Life reached a deal with Stephens College to utilize Prunty Hall as a space for 108 more off-campus MU students.

Another Residential Life option arose for returning students in the TRUE Scholars House. The former Liahona house at the intersection of College Avenue and University Avenue, the TRUE Scholars House houses 22 predominantly returning students in single, suite-style rooms.

On campus, Residential Life attempted to create as much space as possible with available facilities this semester and identified more than 100 temporary spaces, Minor said. These spaces include study rooms in Hudson residence hall and pairing some student staff members with a roommate.

An additional 50 rooms were converted to house single students and will serve as residential rooms for the whole academic year, he said.

Renovations plans for next year have not been confirmed, Minor said, but Gillett residence hall will open next fall, providing another 420 beds. The question is whether or not renovations will begin next fall on Mark Twain residence hall, the next project in the Residential Life master plan, he said.

“I don’t think we can go past a two-year deferral,” Minor said. “Just because of the needs of the facility, and it’s also deferring all of those additional projects to five other halls.”

Minor said it is difficult to project the sizes of incoming freshman classes, but it is believed the number of graduating high school seniors in Missouri will drop by 2012, alleviating some of the housing pressure.

Vice Provost for Enrollment Management Ann Korschgen said in the release the increases in enrollment can be viewed as a positive demonstration of MU’s presence in the state.

“Not only is our enrollment increasing -- the quality and diversity of our students are increasing as well,” Korschgen said.

Graduate students Devon White and Erica West said they have seen some crowding around campus.

"I've definitely seen crowds in the bookstore," West said.

White said the biggest crowds she's seen have been in the central parts of campus, especially the Arts & Science building.

"Going up the stairs in Arts & Science, it's really crowded," White said. "It's a total nightmare, especially when people are waiting for their classes."