<p>Freshmen face shortage of public housing
By Jamie Thomas </p>
<p>Almost 600 incoming UW-Madison freshmen found themselves on the University Housing waiting list in late May, seeking spaces in the dorms that many will never receive.</p>
<p>A long-standing housing shortage, combined with a freshman class projected to be larger than usual caused the number of freshman without housing contracts to balloon to almost three times what it was last year. </p>
<p>"Clearly, we have a capacity problem where right now more freshmen want to live on campus than we have space for," University Housing Director Paul Evans said.</p>
<p>Housing records stated that during this week in 2004, only 198 freshmen sat on the waiting list as opposed to 560 this year. </p>
<p>"I would venture to say it will be an unusually large freshman class-could be 5,900 or more," Associate Director of Admissions Tom Reason said.</p>
<p>According to Reason, the overabundance of new freshmen is due in part to "overadmittance" by the department of Admissions, but has even more to do with the increased yield in terms of admitted students who opt to attend UW-Madison.</p>
<p>"The real issue here, historically, has been that the university and its housing facilities are not in a position to accommodate all new freshmen," Reason said. </p>
<p>Ogg Hall is scheduled for demolition in the future and two new dormitory buildings are currently under construction, but the additions will likely not serve to ease the pressure of insufficient housing. "They're really just going to be able to take care of what's going to be lost by tearing down Ogg," said Evans.</p>
<p>He also mentioned a now-defunct plan to install housing in the proposed University Square compound.</p>
<p>"Madison doesn't have an on-campus housing requirement so some students may pursue other housing options off campus," said Dave Swiderski, assignments office manager for University Housing.</p>
<p>However, most students and parents agree that on-campus housing provides specific benefits and opportunities that freshmen would otherwise miss out on. </p>
<p>"I want to live in the dorms so that I can make friends and meet other freshmen," said incoming freshman Julia Monke, who will move into Ogg Hall this August. </p>
<p>"Being right there on campus and close to classes" was another benefit of on-campus housing mentioned by Julia's father, Joel Monke. </p>
<p>Though University Housing is not responsible for finding space for the waitlisted students because they missed the March 15 deadline for admission, Evans still expressed concern over the quantity of students on the housing waiting list. "We don't like that big of a waiting list," he said. "We don't like to turn away first-year students who would like to live on campus."</p>