A Full House: Record freshman enrollment rate creates housing shortage | UGAnews
Benson Gathany moved into his first dorm room at University of Georgia’s Boggs Hall on Aug. 6 with every intention of moving out as soon as possible.
This freshman history major from Atlanta is currently in supplementary housing at Boggs, living in a study room turned dorm room with three other roommates.
Gathany picked his housing assignment with freshmen criminal justice major Anthony Belvedere in late May. The two freshmen went onto the UGA Housing website and chose what they thought was a typical dorm in Boggs since it had the same floor plan as the others.
“This room number came up as a normal, cookie-cutter Boggs room,” Belvedere said. “We chose it completely randomly. There were other vacancies.”
About a month after they chose the dorm, housing emailed them their other roommates’ names, which is when they realized they would be in supplementary housing.
“If we had looked at the fine print, it showed that there were four slots for that room,” Gathany said. “So we couldn’t really go back.”
The two said their other roommates made the same mistake as they did by assuming that room was only a two-person dorm. After the roommate emails were sent out, they said that housing removed the previous photo of the floorplan.
“We were kind of in suspense of what the room looked like at all until we came here for orientation,” Gathany said.
Supplementary housing had been implemented in other dorms as well because of this year’s large freshmen class, which is 4 percent larger than last year’s.
This school year, over 5,800 students enrolled out of around the 24,500 who applied.
These numbers are continuing to grow, according the 2016 UGA Factbook. Last year 5,400 students enrolled out of 22,600 applicants.
To accommodate these first-year students, housing also offered to buyout the housing contracts of upperclassmen for $2,500-$3,500 and offered $1,000 to nearby freshmen to commute to campus.
And for those in supplementary housing, Belvedere said they are getting a 25 percent discount on their housing bill, which makes the slightly cramped living arrangement worth it for him.
Gathany doesn’t have the same outlook.
“I appreciate the whole paying less thing, but I like having my own personal space that I can go back to,” Gathany said.
“I appreciate the whole paying less thing, but I like having my own personal space that I can go back to."
-Benson Gathany, freshman living in supplementary housing
Gathany said he has called housing three times so far to change dorms, but there are still no vacant rooms available.
The two said that there are waiting lists for all the dorms, ranging from around 20 to 160 students depending on the size of the dorm.
“There’s already a lot of stuff coming to college, and adding living in bunk room when you weren’t expecting it is just another thing,” Gathany said. “It’s not devastating on it’s own, but death by 1,000 cuts.”
Even so, both freshmen said that their living situation isn’t as bad as they initially thought it would be.
“It hasn’t taken anything away from my college experience,” Belvedere said. “In fact, having more roommates is almost kind of nice because you have a variety of people.”
Even some of those students with standard rooms are forced to make some adjustments. Some freshmen are living with their Residential Assistants while others were placed in areas usually reserved for upperclassmen, like University Village and East Campus Village.
Greg Trevor, director of media communications for UGA, said that these accommodations mean that every freshmen who wanted to live on campus is able to do so.
Cheryl Maafoh, a freshmen marketing major from Snellville, is currently living with her RA in Brumby Hall, but even that living arrangement is going to be temporary.
She said other freshmen who were living with RAs have already started being moved to other dorms.
“Since I didn’t do a [room] request change, I have to go wherever they decide to move me,” Maafoh said. “It’s mandatory. They could say ‘go to ECV on Aug. 20,’ and I have to go.”
Maafoh originally found a roommate on the Facebook housing group who had her room assignment in mid-June, before Maafoh’s assignment date.
When her original roommate went to go sign up for housing, she was placed with a random roommate in University Village, which Maafoh said is probably because housing was already crunched for space by that time.
According to the housing website, housing assignment preferences are based on registration time and date, and first-year students “should register as soon as possible on The Dawg House after being accepted to the University of Georgia.”
Housing also gave Maafoh a random roommate, and she didn’t find out she was rooming with her RA until she contacted her roommate herself via Facebook.
“I kind of heard some stuff [about the housing shortage] on the news, but I just assumed that’s why it was so late that I got my housing,” Maafoh said. “I didn’t think I would be with an RA.”
Maafoh said that there are benefits to her situation because she can ask her roommate for advice about campus, but she does wish she had the chance to explore with a fellow freshmen roommate.
“I kind of do stuff by myself. You don’t have that ‘froomie’ to explore with, that you’re both in it together and new.”
-Cheryl Maafoh, freshman living with an RA in Brumby Hall
“I kind of do stuff by myself,” Maafoh said. “You don’t have that ‘froomie’ to explore with, that you’re both in it together and new.”
Jordan Tildon, freshmen social work major from Augusta, said she’s also not getting the typical freshmen experience.
Tildon is living in an apartment-style dorm in Rooker Hall at ECV with her own room and one other suitemate. She said she’s “on the lucky side” compared to others at ECV who have to share their rooms, changing the normal four-person suites to accommodate six to eight students instead.
Tildon said her only problem is being far away from her class locations, but she’s otherwise happy with her living arrangement despite not choosing that dorm.
“Once [housing] got a certain limit, they just started giving people housing,” Tildon said. “My roommate didn’t get to pick her housing, either.”
Tildon said housing is giving her a reduced price of $3,501 as opposed to the normal $3,899 for Rooker Hall. But this is still higher than what freshman are typically required to pay.
According to the housing website, freshmen highrises and Hill Community dorms usually only cost around $2,600-$3,000.
Nathaniel Gaul, a freshman political science and German major from Decatur, was also placed in ECV and has five other suitemates.
“All the amenities are really nice, but it’s kind of far away from campus and downtown,” Gaul said. “And paying more for [housing] without having much of a choice is kind of annoying.”
Otherwise, Gaul said that he likes the independence of apartment-style living, even though he isn’t getting the typical freshmen experience.
“A lot of the freshmen are spread out, everywhere,” Tildon said. “Usually they’re all in one location, so that’s kind of inconvenient when we’re all trying to hang out.”
This freshmen class didn’t only break enrollment records. They also have unprecedented academic records with an average GPA of 4.0 and ACT score of 30.
“The University of Georgia, already a popular choice for students entering college, continues to experience rising demand,” Trevor said. “Increasing interest in UGA by applicants has been driven largely by the statewide and national attention the university has received for a number of pioneering academic initiatives to enhance student learning success.”
Gathany said UGA’s high academic reputation is one of the reasons why he chose the school.
“I was actually really surprised going in because I had the impression it wasn’t a rigorous school, but it really was compared to the other schools I applied to,” Gathany said.
Tildon said she was surprised she got into UGA considering its high academic standard.
“When I got my letter, I was baffled that I got it,” Tildon said. “Every year it gets better with more competition.”
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