@maya54 Excellent post. My sentiments exactly. If Michigan was up front with us and explained how this happened, where things stand, and how they are going to solve it, there would be a lot less anxiety for my son (and our family). I bleed maize and blue, and I have been an alumni recruiter for years, but this certainly impacts how I feel about the competence of UM. I think they are sitting in their cubicles with no idea how this may impact the incoming student. We have not yet contacted housing out of concern that they will take retribution out on my son. When he finally gets his assignment (which better be good because he, unlike other students, will not have a chance to swap), I intend to have some conversations with housing and Dr. Schlissel (well, at least his office; I doubt he will talk to me).
@maya54. The only communication has been one “Update” email on July 29th with no real information on the exact status or what is being done. It had a very general statement of “you must be anxious” and that they are “working diligently”. As a small consolation, they did emphasize that they have a space within university housing and told him he would have a September 4 move in date (remember, he can not sign up for a date and time to move in without a room). They then ended it with “we regret that we are not yet able to share your housing placement” and “we appreciate your patience”. From my perspective, the email did not accomplish its presumed goal of comforting my son (or me to be fair) and left us more concerned about the abilities of the UM housing.
At this point and based upon what little I know of past years, they are currently trying to find some upperclassmen to move out of university housing. Last year, we had some friends who had a sophomore set to live in university housing and the university enticed him and his roommates to move to some off campus housing owned by UM. The concern about them trying to find space is he may not get a freshman roommate and his immediate area may be upperclassmen.
So, at this point, we are frustrated, anxious, and, I think it is human nature, very concerned about what housing he may ultimately get assigned (the fear of the unknown). We are hopeful that the process will turn out with a positive assignment and that we can get excited about him moving to UM (his lifelong dream).
Thanks for your genuine concern about the process my son is going through.
@mmDad1965. Given what the University said about not over-enrolling this year it’s kind of shocking if the problem is that they need upperclassman to move out. I guess I could be wrong but my belief is that they didn’t properly schedule the time they would need to get all the students their roommate information on time since last year they had a legitimate issue with over enrollment and could use that as an excuse for anybody they were late in providing housing information and simply were not willing to put in the extra hours required to meet their promise this year when they didn’t have the excuse of over-enrollment to fall back on.
I see this all the time with business organizations. They latch on to any excuse for failing to perform on time. The difference between the business organizations i deal with and the university is that the businesses know that paying customers might walk and they legitimately try to make up for their failure by offering something in return. Universities know they can get away without any consequences. It’s a little disheartening.
I am thinking about your son. Please let us know here on CC what ends up happening. I’m really hoping he gets a good assignment.
@maya54. I suspect your suspicions regarding housing are accurate. Your insight on the business world versus a university setting is, to me, a statement about accountability. As soon as my son gets his assignment, I do intend to see if I can get some accountability on how housing conducts its operations. Obviously, I will not be able to undue how my son has been treated, but I can hopefully gain access to someone that can address the issue for future students. Although students are not customers, UM still wants the best and is in competition with other universities for the best students. At some point, the lack of sufficient housing where the students want it (i.e., Central campus and not North campus) and the failure to treat students fairly and timely will impact the university.
I will let you know how it turns out. I am hesitant to predict when that may actually happen.
My son just received his email and he got his housing assignment for Mary Markley. No other details at this time because he is at his summer job. Finally, some news and he is happy to be on Central Campus.
Considering the over enrollment is the last few years and transfer students coming in, the dorm space may just be as tight as last year. It is around 250-300 less freshmen than last year. That means they may still be short although probably not like 300 as last year.
@wayneandgarth Although there are ~1000 beds added from West Quad, they also removed hundreds rooms from the Northwood apartment for undergraduates this year. At the end, there are certainly a few hundreds beds more than last year. On the other hand, there is still a record number of returning students this year (particularly sophomore). Although much less than freshmen, a significant number of sophomore applied to dorm. It is not clear if they have enough room left/reserved for freshmen.
If you are accurate on the room availability, UM has a big problem. UM guarantees housing for freshman, so they will have to figure out some way to make it happen. In the past, it is my understanding that they offered incentives to upperclassmen to move and make room.
One thing for sure, UM has a housing problem (this has now been several years in a row) and it needs solved.
If they figure out what to do with Baits I, the problem would be solved. It has been sitting there for several years. The problem is students do not want to go there.
Thanks @billcsho - I didn’t realize that they downsized Northwoods this year. Yes, you would think there is still a net increase in rooms (as you mentioned). At least there is a shift in the % of rooms on Central and with the renovations, better rooms as well.
Maybe a solution is not making Stockwell and/or North Quad exclusive to non-Freshmen, effectively making it even more difficult to get a dorm room after Freshmen year.
@waynendgarth By making other dorms available to freshmen would just shift the problem to returning students. It would not solve the problem. They make Stockwell exclusive for sophomore, and yet, it is far from sufficient for that purpose. My D almost cannot get a room there.
See the article from last month regarding shifting Northwood freshmen housing to West Quad. http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2015/07/u-ms_1145_million_west_quad_re.html
Note that around 60% of the dorm spaces are occupied by freshmen, 40% are by sophomore and higher.
The estimate is 500 more beds, not rooms. So they can now house ~10000 students in dorms. In 2013, 97% freshmen lives in dorm. Note that the housing contract came out much earlier for returning students. There is no way to predict precisely how many freshmen will stay in dorm. They should have reserved ~6000 beds for freshmen (5900 freshmen live in dorm in 2013-2014), while there are almost 6300 matriculated freshmen before the summer melt down. It will still be tight if there are less than 200 students changed their mind.
16 years ago, I picked up an international student from the airport right before the international student oriention in late August. He did not receive his housing contract before boarding the flight and srrived after office hour. We call each dorm one by one and finally found the dorm he was assigned after dinner.
