Hundreds of Mississippi State University students can attest to the university”s growth.
For the first time, MSU has had to turn away about 400 upperclassmen requesting on-campus housing.
“They approached us desiring a space in housing,” explained MSU Vice President of Student Affairs Dr. Bill Kibler, noting the requests of the upperclassmen were declined in time for them to find off-campus housing before school began. “In other words, they submitted an application for housing, and we had to notify them we did not have sufficient space to house them. We”ve not had to do that before.
“Our enrollment continues to grow,” he continued. “Our enrollment has been up significantly for the last three years, prior to this one, as well. Part of that has been our freshmen class has continued to grow. Growth in enrollment means a demand for on-campus housing. The enrollment is growing faster than we can build housing.”
With few exceptions, incoming freshmen are required to live on campus. The university currently is housing more than 4,000 students.
A new 350-room residence hall was opened in time for classes this fall, but additional new on-campus housing won”t be open until the fall of 2012, at the earliest.
“We”re in discussions now about future construction of housing,” Kibler said, adding the process of constructing new residence halls usually takes about two years.
“It”s a good problem to have,” he said of the housing shortage. “We never want to turn a student away, who wants to live on campus, but the reality of our growth is we simply cannot (accommodate them all).”
Kibler said MSU had 2,450 students in its freshman class during the 2009-2010 school year, but estimated this year”s freshman class is about 10 percent bigger, although students are still registering. The College Board will release official numbers next month.
“We were at 18,601 (students) last year and our enrollment clearly appears to be up significantly this year,” Kibler said.
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