On-Campus Housing at VCU

HOUSING IS NATIONWIDE CRISIS AND VCU HEADACHE

VCU Students also find it difficult to find a place to live

(RICHMOND, October 31) The nation’s housing crisis has forced many Americans into bankruptcies and foreclosures resulting in many Americans losing their homes. While Virginia Commonwealth University students may not be forced into such drastic measures, some will be experiencing a housing crisis of their own.

Although VCU students are only halfway through the fall semester, many are already thinking about where they will live next fall.

Why must students think about housing nearly a half a year in advance? VCU simply has too many students and not enough housing. Six high-occupancy freshmen-only dorms feed into VCU’s only five upper-classmen residence halls.

Another reason for the limited number of spaces available in on-campus housing is VCU has recently become the largest populated university in Virginia. More students are becoming interested in VCU’s programs so more are accepting admission.

“Out of an applicant pool of about 16,000, usually 65 percent are admitted,” said Ernesto Obando, a counselor in VCU’s admissions office. “We only expect a third of those who are admitted to accept our offer. But in the past few years, more students have become interested in VCU and more are saying yes than we expect.”

In February of each spring semester, VCU begins its housing lottery. Students sign up in January and are given a number at random. During the lottery, students sign up for housing in order of their number.

Last year’s lottery had more than 2,000 students scheduled to sign up over a weekend. By the time number 500 was able to sign up, there were no more rooms for females available. By the end of the first day, the Housing website posted there were no available rooms.

The lottery process overwhelms many freshmen, like Tony Butler. "Last year I thought that VCU's housing lottery was so terrible,” said Butler, now a sophomore. “I thought that it was not right for a school to not a have enough dorms for all of its students.”

“What made it worse,” Butler continued, “is that I had to call to housing every other day after [the lottery] was over and find out if anyone had dropped their contract so that I could take their spot.”

A petition was even started on the internet after the housing lottery of 2007 which indicates that the problem has been going on for years.

Students wrote statements such as, “The lottery process is totally unfair and doesn't take any financial or geographical issues into account,” and “It is really unfortunate for those who are out of state because they are obviously being stressed about this issue.”

Although housing on campus is scarce, the growth of the VCU population is not frowned upon by all students.

“I’m glad our school is getting recognized,” said Thomas Wooldridge, a junior, in a raised voice over the noisy student commons. “But with a bigger student population, we need bigger accommodations.”

To many students, the answer is simply to build more residence halls. But the problem is not so simple.

“People don’t see what goes on behind the scenes,” said Rodney Hall, an admissions advisor at VCU. “VCU has been doing things to accommodate our growing population, like expanding both campuses.”

There are efforts being made to accommodate the large student population at VCU. But many students want to know how quickly they can expect changes.

“I think we will continue to add more housing to meet the demand,” said Tim Coffey coordinator for residential education (CRE) for Rhoads and Brandt Hall dormitories at VCU. “I’m just not sure how quickly this will occur because you can only build so quickly and not run into a great deal of debt.”

Many students choose to live off-campus after their freshman year. Although some students are forced to move off-campus, many would rather have the freedoms of their own apartments and avoid the hassle of the housing lottery altogether.

“I like living off-campus,” said sophomore Cheryl Johnson. “It’s like actually being an adult. You don’t have people watching over you like in the dorms.”