The Residential Quad is overcrowded ? there are 150 freshmen living in triple rooms. Currently, there are 50 rooms of triples compared to the 10 ? 15 triple rooms last year.
The total enrollment for the Class of 2005 is 999 students, of which 989 are being housed on the Residential Quad. The quad is designed to hold 940 freshmen.
The university is within the range but on the high side, said Director of Undergraduate Admissions Jaime Hobba.
?We started with 180 students in triples, now we are down to 150,? Director of Residential Life Logan Hazen said. For the last two weeks, ResLife has been monitoring students as they check-in to determine if there are empty spaces, and then going about filling them to prevent the overcrowding.
There are quite a few universities that are experiencing a similar situation of large classes with more students applying to more colleges.
?There are several reasons such as the economy and the Internet that have made applying to colleges easier,? Hobba said. The yield at UR increased by one and a half percent this year.
Currently there are freshmen living in designed singles. There is also a list of students who are either in singles and would like a double with a roommate or would like to move out of their triple.
Regardless of the requests, Resident Advisors will begin contacting their residents to see how the residents have accommodated to their living situations.
?Once [the freshmen in triples] have had a chance to settle in, we can see if they want to move,? Hazen said. Freshmen living in triples are given a twenty percent discount off of the $4,885 room fee.
The overcrowding is not limited to the freshman class. For the first time, there are 16 upperclassmen being housed in the River Road Residence at the St. Agnes School. These undergraduates are living there along with 24 graduate students.
All the rooms in the River Road Residence are singles with large communal common rooms and kitchens. Since this is the first time undergraduates have been housed there, different facilities changes were made to ensure appropriate dorm room conditions.
For the past two weeks Residential Life has worked with Resnet to install and upgrade the DSL connection. The telephone service has been adjusted so undergraduates can use UR telephones.
The area is on a bus route as well with more service to cater to the students living there. There is a discount of $1200 per year for students living in the River Road Residence.
Other than that, some open spaces in DeKiewet Tower of the Graduate Living Center are also being taken for undergraduate residence. ?We have to do a better job of estimating class retention rate,? Dean of the College William Green said in regard to the increased housing demand.
The trend of more upperclassmen retaining on-campus housing has been observed across the country. Locally, the Rochester Institute of Technology just bought the Marriott Hotel to provide more housing options. Other universities, such as Dartmouth College and Bates University, are also dealing with more students opting for on-campus housing rather than moving off-campus.
There have been delays in the housing process. The transition from Social Security Numbers to new identification numbers delayed the notification process for freshmen over the summer.
?The room assignments were done by hand instead of by a computer,? said Laurel Contomanolis, associate director of ResLife. This led to a two-week delay she added.
Shuffling of rooms will continue, and the last four or five students who filed late housing applications will be placed.
Mansi Desai can be reached at mdesai@campustimes.org.
