Emily Esposito was shocked when she didn’t receive a room for next semester.
Esposito, a freshman chemistry major from Las Vegas and current resident in Campus View Suites at Dixie State University, is among the female students who didn’t receive a bed space for next semester.
“I thought it was weird that, as a returning student, I wouldn’t be offered a place to live,” Esposito said.
She said she started looking for off-campus housing with a roommate.
“I don’t think DSU has enough housing,” Esposito said. “Since the incoming freshman class is so large, it is hard to believe there won’t be enough student houses for them.”
Female room assignments for on-campus housing are complete for next semester, and resident life specialist Jill Fiske said rooms have never filled up this quickly before.
“We usually do room assignments when we have enough applications to fill our beds,” Fiske said. “Since we had more female applications than bed spaces, I decided to do room assignments earlier.”
According to an email sent to housing residents, not everyone who has applied has been assigned a bed space since housing doesn’t have enough spaces to accommodate everyone who wants to live in on-campus student housing.
“Our bed allocation is fluid,” Fiske said. “We adjust spaces according to the quantity of applications we receive. We have converted male spaces into female spaces to try to meet the demand. Overall we will have more female than male bed spaces for next year.”
If a student doesn’t have a bed space when they check their housing application status, he or she can choose to be put on a waiting list. Fiske said students may remain on the waiting list for as long as they would like, but eventually, they will have to find other accommodations.
Other accommodations might include looking for off-campus housing instead.
Anna Garcia, a junior nursing major from Rock Springs, Wyoming, said she applied for off-campus housing because on-campus housing can be stressful.
“I have had many roommate conflicts because they were doing illegal activities,” Garcia said. “Another reason I applied for off-campus housing was the price and the freedom I desire as an upperclassman.”
Garcia said she applied for off-campus housing through a realtor, and it took less than 24 hours to get a call back and a viewing time.
If a student has received a bed space for on-campus housing, a $100 room reservation charge will be placed on his or her student account. If students don’t pay the room reservation or they don’t contact student housing to make other arrangements for payment by April 24, they could lose their room assignment.
In order to receive a deposit refund, students have to cancel their on-campus housing application or room assignment by May 31. If students on the waiting list aren’t offered a bed space by August 10, they will receive a full refund.
Fiske said students should be applying for on-campus housing ahead of time.
“We encourage students to apply during fall semester for the upcoming academic year when applications open the end of October (to the) first of November,” Fiske said.
