By Ame Phitwong
Despite last fall's overcrowded residence halls and another record year of freshman applicants, Residence Life Director Michael Walsh assures the university will be able to accommodate all students who choose to live on campus.
UP received more than 8,000 freshman applications this year, and slightly more than 4,000 will be accepted, according to Jason McDonald, dean of Admissions. Of those 4,000, McDonald anticipates that approximately 750 to 800 freshmen will decide to enroll at UP.
McDonald does not expect the number of freshmen enrolled each year to increase until the campus expands.
"I think we'll stay pretty steady the next few years, ranging around 750 to 800 students each time. I don't see it growing until there's more resources," he said.
In January, John Goldrick, vice president for enrollment management and student life, said in an e-mail that the University is searching for funding in order to break ground for a new residence hall this spring.
Even so, Walsh said the new dorm will not be completed for the 2008-09 school year. The new dorm would allow for more freshmen to be admitted, but its construction is aimed at relieving the overcrowding and retaining more upperclassman students on campus.
With the move to make UP a more residential campus, Walsh explained the new dorm would create more single rooms available to juniors and seniors.
Junior Jayme Schroeder, a transfer student, applied to live on campus this year, but was denied due to overcrowding.
"I got accepted in the fall. I was waiting on financial aid and student housing and didn't find out I had no place to stay until two weeks before school started," Schroeder said. He ended up rooming at a family friend's house.
Schroeder explained he turned in his application within deadlines, but Residence Life said it was giving freshmen and sophomores priority to on-campus housing. Next year, Schroder will be studying abroad for fall semester. When he returns in the spring, he will continue to stay off campus.
Walsh said there were several factors that made it difficult to predict how to accommodate the influx of freshmen last fall.
Although he collaborates with the Office of Admissions, neither department knows the percentage of students enrolled that will live on campus every year.
The gender split is also unknown before enrollment is determined. This year, Christie Hall was overcrowded because more men chose to attend UP than was expected, causing some double rooms to be converted into triples.
"We make the best decision based on previous years," Walsh explained. This year, about 20 double rooms were converted to triple rooms. Walsh said the last time doubles had to be converted was in 2003.
Freshman Chris Brock lives in Villa Maria Hall in a forced triple. He said that when he visited campus last year, he toured Corrado Hall and, from that experience, he was pleased with housing at UP.
But when he arrived, he said there was a mix-up in his paperwork, and he was placed in Villa in a forced triple.
"It's not too crowded," Brock said. "We've got plenty of space and even have room for a couch. I like the situation I'm in."
Brock is applying for on-campus housing again.
"I haven't found any difficulty at this point," he said.
McDonald does not expect the number of enrolled freshmen to increase next year or the following years until more room is available, even though interest in UP may continue to rise. He explained that this year, the growth rate in freshman applications was 13 percent. For the previous year, the growth was 12 percent.
According to McDonald, there shouldn't be a dramatic change in the university's student body size.
"We want to keep it the same. Even though the applications are increasing, it allows us to be more selective," he said.
UP's selectivity is based on the total applications submitted and the actual number accepted. In previous years, McDonald said UP's selectivity percentile had been in the 80s. This means that an applicant had an 80 percent chance of getting accepted. Last year, selectivity was 58 percent, and this year, the university's selectivity is 52 percent, the most selective in school history.
