RAs having roommates and study rooms being converted to dorms were among the temporary housing options prepared by Housing and Residence Life this semester in preparation for a housing shortage that never materialized.
Though there was potential for a housing shortage, Mistie Bibbee, the director of Housing and Residence Life, said the shortage was resolved before classes even began.
“As we were preparing for the fall semester, we knew that we were going to have quite a few more housing applications than what we’ve had in the past,” Bibbee said. “We knew that we would get cancellations, but we could never guarantee how many that we’d get or how many no-shows that we’d get.”
Bibbee said her office did not have to assign roommates to any RAs. She said all of the temporary housing assignments, of which there were only five, were assigned to the renovated study spaces in Towers.
“We had assigned maybe 15 to 20 people to temporary spaces in Towers in the converted studies, and we were able to move the majority of those to permanent assignments before they even arrived on campus,” Bibbee said. “We had five students that moved into the temporary spaces on their move-in date, and within about three days, they were provided with a permanent assignment in one of the residence halls.”
Bibbee said the renovated study rooms could be used as emergency housing spaces from now on.
“Some of those, we will open back up as study rooms used throughout the year. Some of those we will leave as rooms because we do get requests throughout the year for emergency housing,” Bibbee said. “Somebody lives off campus and their apartment catches fire and they need something, or we have two students on campus in the middle of the night that have a disagreement, and we need to separate them temporarily.”
Bibbee said there are no plans for the converted study spaces to be used as permanent housing assignments. She attributed the housing shortages to an increase in demand for housing compared to previous years.
“We are seeing increases in enrollment; we are seeing increases in the number of students who are choosing to stay on campus beyond the residency requirement,” Bibbee said. “So, on campus housing at Marshall is definitely becoming more sought-after.”
Because Marshall University has not had to deal with a housing shortage in recent years, Bibbee said students feel more anxious when they hear about the housing issues.
“Historically, the institution has not had occupancy issues. I think the last time there was overflow was probably about 20 years ago, so people haven’t seen it,” Bibbee said. “It’s different, you know, because everybody gets anxiety when something isn’t how it’s supposed to be.”
Bibbee said the practices Marshall is using are standard procedure for many universities across the country when facing increased demand for housing.
“A lot of the measures we’ve looked at, like the converted studies, temporary roommates and things like that, there are schools across the country that do that; it’s not new or unique,” Bibbee said. “It’s just something that we’ve not experienced here in a while, so it’s different than what people are used to.”
Ashton Pack can be contacted at [email protected].
