Freshmen, upperclassmen, select transfers to receive rooms
Good news for all returning students seeking on-campus housing: There is no waiting list for this fall.
According to University Housing, all 1,896 returning students who requested to stay on campus found a spot to live.
“We were able to offer everyone a bed on campus,” said Joe Fortune, associate director for Housing Administration and Undergraduate Assignments.
Still, not everyone wanted to take the offer up.
“There are still 79 students on that list who are holding out for apartments,” Fortune said. “We offered them suite-style and traditional-style living, and they basically said, ‘No. Thanks, but no thanks. I would rather wait for an apartment,’” he said.
University Housing has been in contact with those 79 students frequently in order to remind them that they are still on the list and to find out if they’ve made alternate arrangements.
“They really want an apartment, so they’re just going to wait and see what happens,” Fortune said. “But we’re letting them know that if they haven’t received an apartment by late June or early July, they really want to think about making other arrangements.”
Typically, returning students eventually move and stay off campus.
“Juniors and seniors tend to do that the most,” Fortune said. “I think as you get to that upper-level status, it just comes down to you wanting a different environment in terms of off-campus living.”
Fourth-year political science student Matt Alsaeedi said that “you call the shots” when you stay off campus.
“You’re excited to move off campus after the first year so you can be independent,“ said Alsaeedi, who lives on Rosewood Drive and will be moving to a basement apartment off campus.
Fortune, who lived on campus all four years of his undergraduate career, said that it all comes down to a lifestyle choice.
“There are many reasons why people live off campus, and I think there are many reasons why people come back to campus, too,” he said.
Fourth-year geography student Brian Davidson is a student who decided to stay on campus. He said that living on campus is convenient for him.
“I stay there mainly for the convenience,” Davidson said. “Living in Preston (Residential College) gives me the convenience factor of having everything readily available.”
Housing is making progress this summer in regard to placements as well as construction.
“We’re just about done with the freshman placements,“ Fortune said.
With more than 4,500 freshman applications, including 300 of them still being worked on, housing is now taking time to go through hall and roommate choices.
“We could place the 300 today if we wanted to, but we want to honor their choices. One thing I’ve learned in this job, and what parents and students have told me, is that roommates are what matter most,” he said. “We really try to give that some special attention.”
The 229 transfer student applicants have been guaranteed housing if they are members of the Bridge Program, which was created in 2007 to assist students at South Carolina technical schools in transitioning to USC. Transfer students from other USC system campuses are also guaranteed housing.
“The people that are in jeopardy of not receiving housing are those transfers that are not in any of those groups,” Fortune said. “But we will be able to place some of them.”
Those not placed will have to find housing elsewhere.
Renovations for Patterson Hall, which made housing difficult last year, are almost complete. Housing has already assigned 544 women, including 16 resident mentors, to live there this year.
“We’ll swing the doors open on Saturday, Aug. 13, at 8 a.m.,” Fortune said.