Students who have completed their housing requirement of living on campus for two years but want to continuing living in residence halls during the 2016-17 academic year must complete a form by Friday to be considered during the first review process.
Upperclass Ohio University students looking to live on campus during the next academic year might need to find a new home.
Students who have completed the housing requirement of living on campus for two years, but want to continuing living in residence halls during the 2016-17 academic year must complete a form by Friday to be considered during the first review process, according to an email sent to upperclass students Nov. 10.
The form is available at www.ohio.edu/myhousing and students will be notified of their request statuses by Jan. 6, according to the email sent by the Department of Housing and Residence Life.
“We don’t have a specific cap set on upperclass students for next year, but we will need to limit that number in comparison to this year’s number of upperclass students living on campus,” Pete Trentacoste, executive director of Housing and Residence Life, said in an email.
The department needs to limit the number of beds available to students who aren’t required to live on campus to ensure there is adequate space on campus for first and second-year students, according to the email.
Part of the reason for the cap is the department will be short 309 spaces when Jefferson Hall is closed next year for renovations, according to the email.
This year, the department had roughly 8,600 beds available to students, with 306 of those beds taken by juniors, seniors and others who have met the two year housing requirement, Trentacoste said in an email.
The department has forecasted how much space will be needed for first and second year students and the numbers suggest the department “will be over capacity if we do not implement an upperclass cap,” Trentacoste said in an email.
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Trentacoste said in an email the department has not had to implement the cap in recent years, but it has historically been a university policy.
Rachel Fouts, a sophomore studying biological sciences, said the university should prioritize current OU students over the incoming freshmen and make sure there is room for them on campus.
“We’re like technically customers … we’re returning customers. We wouldn’t treat them worse than you would somebody else,” she said.
Gillian Amrine, a sophomore studying sociology-criminology, compared the situation to walking into a crowded restaurant.
“I feel like it would kind of be if you go to a restaurant, and you sit down at your table, and you’re eating your meal and someone else comes in and they give your table away while you’re still here eating,” Amrine said.
@MariaDeVito13
md781510@ohio.edu
