It is that stressful time of year again: Housing season–when students pick roommates and try to plot their way into their preferred residence hall. This year, rumors have been circulating that all rooms in Alumni and Elm Hall are being tripled in order to accommodate the influx of students who wish to live on campus.

According to the Director of Residential Life and Housing Alerie Tirsch, all suites and semi-suites in Elm and Alumni Hall will have one double and one triple for the Fall 2019 semester.

“Some of those spaces will be triples (permanent assignments) and some will be extended occupancy triples,” Tirsch said. “These spaces are meant to house three students until we can find a permanent space for one of the students into another room in Alumni Hall. The students in this room are considered permanent residents until an offer to move has been made.”

Nilam Kotadia, the associate director for Housing Operations, says that both the residence halls were built with the intention that 100 triples would be in Alumni and 50 in Elm. The final decision was made by leadership that was involved in the planning and building of Alumni and Elm.

“In years past, the demand was not as high so we did not need as many triples,” Kotadia said. “However, looking forward, we are seeing that more students want to live on campus and we would like to accommodate as many students as we can. By tripling the rooms in Alumni Hall and Elm Hall, we can meet the student need.”

The good news for those who will live in a triple is that they will pay a lower price than those who do live in doubles or singles. 

Because there is a dearth of off-campus housing available, Residential Life hopes students can appreciate that they are able to house more students at on-campus.

“The off-campus housing that is available is more expensive than what many of our students can afford,” Kotadia said. “By housing more students on campus, we are able to provide a great residential experience at a competitive price.”

The lounges in Martin and North Hall have been turned into triples in recent years in order to house more students on campus. They served as temporary housing until a permanent space opened up. Residential Life has worked to remove students from living in these lounges so that residents in these halls can enjoy the space, and do not wish to have students living in them again unless absolutely necessary.

“If we get to a place where the Fall semester is about to start and we do not have enough spaces for the students on the wait-list, we may turn them into temporary rooms until we can get those students housed somewhere else on campus,” Kotadia said. “This is a decision that we will only make as a last resort. The lounges in Martin Hall and North Hall are features that our returning students enjoy using and we do not want to take them away.”

In past years, some students have even been placed in hotels because there was nowhere for them to stay on campus. According to Tirsch, no students were placed in hotels this year.

“We have housed students in a hotel in the past and are doing everything we can do to not do that again,” said Tirsch.