200 additional students given room assignments
Patience is a virtue, as it turns out, for upperclassmen seeking on-campus housing for the fall semester. While as of mid-March there were 450 students without a housing assignment, those who chose not to withdraw their housing applications by the April 1 refund deadline were given housing assignments by April 6.
“There were approximately 200 students who had not withdrawn their applications by the deadline,” said Joe Fortune, director of administration for University Housing. “As of today, we have offered all of those students a place for next year, so we don’t have a waiting list at the moment.”
Online appointments for room selection were given to students on dates between Feb. 20 and March 2, but demand exceeding available rooms by 900 left some students without a room to select by their appointment time. By March 12, half of those students had withdrawn their applications.
Assignments for the 200 students who risked losing their $100 advanced room payment by waiting past the April 1 deadline were made available by students who had received and canceled their housing assignments.
“Unfortunately, we had to receive cancellations in order to serve people on the waiting list,” Fortune said. “As people cancelled through the April 1 deadline, we were able to give assignments to those who had not yet received one. We had to wait for a group of students to cancel.”
Housing shortages are not uncommon at USC, as guaranteeing housing to incoming freshmen often pushes upperclassmen off campus.
“This has been a problem every year, except for last year, for the past 10 years,” said Kirsten Kennedy, executive director of University Housing. “One of the things that’s happened is that undergraduate enrollment has grown tremendously, and it’s not possible for us to keep up with construction as quickly. There is not much for us to do, as freshmen are the most needy, and we have to guarantee them housing.”
University Housing is looking to combat this problem in the coming years, though no definite plans have been made.
“We’re looking at different ways to allocate the space, but we’re in the very early stages of it,” Kennedy said.
The majority of the assignments given to these students on the waiting list were in traditional and suite-style residence halls like South Tower, which will go co-ed in the fall, and Bates House.
“There were very few apartment-style rooms available because they are the most in-demand residence halls to begin with, and those who have places in those residence halls don’t often cancel their assignments,” Fortune said.
For those who are still hoping to receive an assignment in an apartment-style residence hall, however, there is still hope.
“We are encouraging students who would like to be in the apartments to work through the room change process,” Fortune said. “Most often over the summer, quite a few students will manage to end up in their top choice of housing ... it’s going to be based on somebody cancelling.”
For the students who hope to secure one of these spots, patience, once more, will be key.