An unexpected rise in enrollment among first years this year has spawned a housing shortage and may cause additional problems for the University's perennially understaffed academic departments.
Officials had hoped to have 3,040 first years enrolled at this point in the year, but the number was 3,122 as of yesterday, according to Director of Institutional Studies George Stovall.
"Ultimately it'll get down below 3,100," Stovall said. "My best guess is that it'll be 3,090 by the time all is said and done."
University Spokesperson Carol Wood said officials are relatively certain this year's higher enrollment is "just a one-year blip."
Admission Dean John Blackburn "expected more to drop out in the summer than dropped out this summer," she said.
According to Chief Housing Officer Mark Doherty, there currently are 28 first-year males in tripled rooms in the Alderman Road dormitory suites, as well as 12 males housed in study lounges in Cauthen and Woody Houses. A total of 16 female students are being housed in Cauthen and Woody lounges. Those students all are receiving a pro-rated discount on their rent.
Additionally, 162 first-year students are being housed in Hereford College presently, which is about 40 more than last year, Doherty said.
A feasibility study for the replacement of the deteriorating Alderman Road dorms built in the 1960s recently was completed, but construction is unlikely to start on those new buildings anytime soon, Doherty said.
"If it's going to begin, it would likely begin in the next three or four years and would probably take 10 to 12 years to complete," he said. "What we'd need to do would be to insure that we build new housing first so that we could then demolish some of the existing buildings."
As a result, a first-year housing shortage is likely to become the norm in the coming years, although new language house spaces might help to somewhat alleviate the problem, Doherty said.
"For first-year students we will continue to have something of a crunch until we bring on additional first-year facilities," he said. "There has been some very preliminary discussion about the possibility of first-year students in appropriate numbers being allowed to apply for residency in language houses."
Politics Dept. Chair Robert Fatton, Jr. said it is not clear yet whether the additional first-year students will create a crisis situation for course enrollment in his department, which currently has over 700 majors.
"It's not clear, but what is clear is that virtually all the courses offered at the undergraduate level are full," Fatton said. "If there is a real problem we will see it next week when most students have settled into their classes and dropped from previous classes."
Wood said the University's future enrollment plans, adopted in April by the Board of Visitors, call for minimal undergraduate growth.
"We'll continue on our slow growth plan," she said. "That would be in the 50 [new students per year] range."
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