Despite the increase in enrollment in recent years, Ohio University expects to comfortably house students living on-campus this year.
“We do not anticipate having any problems accommodating students this fall,” Pete Trentacoste, executive director of Housing and Residence Life, said in an email.
In Fall 2014, housing ran into problems when more students enrolled at OU than the university could house in residence halls. The freshman class two years ago included 4,377 students.
In order to fix the problem, OU came up with a few temporary solutions: Residential Housing converted some triples serving as doubles back to triples, some students temporarily stayed in lounges, and some resident assistants had to share their rooms with students who weren’t RAs, according to a previous Post report.
By early September, no students were still assigned to live with RAs.
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The overcrowding problem happened during Carly Fallon’s sophomore year and though the issue did not impact her directly, she said it affected her freshman year residence hall, Perkins Hall.
“We had a lounge outside of my room and the year after they crowded people into those rooms and it was awkward,” Fallon, a senior studying exercise physiology, said. “I heard they put four people in there and it was a super small space for a quad.”
Despite breaking an enrollment record last year, housing students in residence halls was not a problem. OU’s class of 2019 had 4,423 students after the first three weeks of classes last year, according to a previous Post report.
The official enrollment numbers for the class of 2020 will not be available until the end of August, OU spokesman Dan Pittman said.
All 43 of OU’s available residence halls are expected to be near capacity, Trentacoste said.
Jefferson Hall is the only residence hall on campus that will not be used to house students as it continues to undergo renovations before it is scheduled to reopen August 2017, Trentacoste said.
Last year, Cady Hall, Foster House, Brough Hall and Fenzel House were not occupied. This year, Fenzel House is available for use.
“The renovation at Jefferson is going very smoothly thus far,” Trentacoste said in an email, noting the project is on schedule.
The approximately $40 million renovation of Jefferson Hall is set to include a new market, academic center and upgraded dorm rooms. An elevator will also be installed in the renovated residence hall, according to a previous Post report.
Cady, Foster and Brough — which contained about 300 beds altogether — was demolished over the summer so those residence halls are no longer in use, Trentacoste said.“Outside of those buildings, we do not anticipate having any empty facilities to start the year,” Trentacoste said in an email.
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