<p>My son is a freshman. He got placed in a TINY triple in South Quad this year. He did not request a triple, just got stuck there becasue of a "housing crunch". It's turned out OK, but I'm sure he'll be ready to get out by April.</p>
<p>So I buy that, there is not enough housing to go around. I know they are trying to upgrade and expand, but that process will take many years.</p>
<p>So today we get a postcard in the mail from MHousing encouraging us to have our son sign up for dorm living next year.</p>
<p>Say what? Why, with the obvious shortage, would they be encouraging kids to stay in the dorms. Seems like a waste of postage and paper. Add that to advertising by drug companies and electric companies to my list of pet peeves.</p>
<p>There can be a shortage one year, but plenty of room the next year, and room for upperclassmen. They set aside rooms for non-freshmen. Of course, if those go unspoken for, they'll put freshmen in them--in some cases. Only a portion of the sophomore, juniors, and seniors stay on campus.</p>
<p>But if they set aside less rooms for non-freshman because they did not advertise and encourage them to stay in dorms, then they would have more space availbable for freshman, right? And then freshman would not be stuck in tiny triples that they did not sign up for. As you know, UM is taking one dorm at a time out of service for renovation, so there is less housing that there was previously - and they did not cut back on enrollment.</p>
<p>And in terms of year to year variablility, UM has over-enrolled every year in recent memory, so I that doesn't really ring true to me.</p>
<p>I respect your knowledge of the University very much hoedown, but I'm not buying this one.</p>
<p>I was on the Residence Halls Association last year, and I remember in March-April, Housing was telling us that they were going to have trouble filling up all of their rooms because so many more kids than usual were moving off-campus. There was even talk of shutting one of the dorms down for the year (probably just individual buildings at Baits). I guess U-M's big-time over-enrollment changed this one.</p>
<p>If they can have upperclassmen stay in doubles (your son won't be forced into a triple because he'll get to pick for next year), then they can make even more money by cramming new freshmen into triples and filling the open dorms to the max. It's always about the money.</p>
<p>U-M enrollment up in 2007-08
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—The University of Michigan Ann Arbor campus set a new enrollment record for fall 2007 with 41,042 students, 1,017 more students than last year, a 2.5 percent increase, according to the U-M Office of the Registrar. The number of graduate/professional students increased by 3.4 percent. Undergraduates increased by 2.1 percent.
The total includes a freshman class of 5,992 students, an 11 percent increase over last year.</p>
<p>They took one dorm out of service and still let freshman enrollment rise 11 percent. When you miss enrollment by 5%, that's a miscalculation. When you miss it by double digits, that's intent.</p>
<p>It's very difficult for Housing to predict what is going to happen from one year to the next -- because of the fluctuation in the size of the freshman class. Fall 2006 was a small class at 5369 students. This fall, the class was projected to be about the same size, but it came in 400 students over last year.</p>
<p>The size of the freshman class has been unpredictable -- and this is really rough on Housing. This fall, there were 400 students more than last year. This year's class, and the two classes before last year were all much larger than expected. It's not like they can build new dorms overnight.</p>
<p>I don't pretend to know much about Housing, or understand quite what motivates an auxiliary unit. But it does have certain spaces that are for non-freshmen only. And overall there is too much capacity to just house only the a freshman class and never have any upperclassmen housed. </p>
<p>It is true that some spaces are for either kind of student, and it is true that the rate of re-upping in the residence halls can have an impact on availability for the freshmen class. But ideally there is room for both, and that's why Housing recruits students to stay the next year. Generally, it works out. Sometimes it doesn't. </p>
<p>The real problem is, upperclassmen need to work out their housing way earlier, whereas Housing can't know the freshmen class numbers until May. We set targets earlier, but it isn't until May that we know if the targets were exceeded. </p>
<p>When too many upperclassmen want to re-up, and Housing can tell that in advance (going off of targets set early for freshmen), they can deny some soph/jr/sr applications for Housing. But if the space crunch develops late, as it might if way more Freshmen say "yes" that expected, it's harder. You can't contact an upperclassman in June and tell them you're cancelling the contract they signed months ago. </p>
<p>What they have done is incent people to move to different space (like to family housing, freeing up traditional space) OR let people know they can get out of their signed contract and find housing off campus (which some of them can do successfully). And if Housing still don't have enough room, they start stuffing people into triples (I realize this was not a good thing for your son). </p>
<p>I do not know how hard Housing tried to incent upperclassmen to break their contracts for Fall 2007. Like I said, I was told they were fine for capacity, and I have yet to figure out why, if they were "fine," they were cramming people into triples. I don't meet with Housing people as often as I used to, so I haven't had a chance to ask.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the information. That all makes sense.</p>
<p>I do wonder if they have had any "excess capacity" at the either the freshman or non-freshman level since Mosher Jordan has been off line. I also wonder if there will be a mad dash to be in Mosher Jordan this fall and how much of that dorm will be reserved for non-freshman.</p>
<p>Housing did not "cram people into triples" this year. SBDad's son's room has probably been a triple for a long time. U-M doesn't set aside rooms by class either, except for the learning communities and Northwood apartments. Basically, upperclass students get to pick what they want - and freshmen get what is left.</p>
<p>Snorky, you seem to contradict Hoedown regarding setting asided rooms by class. Hoedown says "But it does have certain spaces that are for non-freshmen only". </p>
<p>Also, the fact that certain rooms have been triples for a long time doesn't mean that students don't get crammed into them. I define putting three students in a room that is smaller than most doubles on the same floor as "cramming". Just semantics I guess.</p>
<p>Snorky, sorry for confusion caused my choice of words. I was alluding to the fact that, according to SBDad, his son did not want a triple. He was assigned into one against his wishes.</p>
<p>Northwood was exactly what I was thinking of when I said some housing is not for freshmen. Many years they've also reserved Oxford for new transfers (sophs and juniors), although with bigger classes that isn't the case. I would assume (although this is just guessing) that most singles are set aside for non-freshman as well.</p>
<p>Overall, it's not plausible to me that upperclassmen would get to pick whatever they want. Wouldn't they all end up in a few dorms considered more "choice" than others? It seems to me you'd have any newly-renovated dorm completely filled with returners if you did that. Surely Housing does some planning and some set-asides to achieve the distribution that they do.</p>