Underclass University students could expect to see less space this year for living arrangements with Harshman Hall’s 2017 closure, but next year, they will see even less space.

Residence Life director Joshua Lawrie said in March two of the University’s four on-campus housing buildings located off campus will be closed next academic year.

These buildings had been used to house students in their first two years on campus as part of their on-campus residency. Though students can live off campus during and after their third academic year of education, the school requires underclass students to live on campus.

The lessening building count does not alarm Residence Life, however; studies the office has conducted say the smaller building count should be appropriate for the amount of new students coming onto campus.

“Everyone should have a bed,” Lawrie said.

He added the differences in living spaces between this past academic year and the next better reflected the smaller numbers of students projected to arrive next fall.

The four dormitories that are in-use sit tightly knit around the corner of East Merry Street and North Enterprise Street, just west of the train tracks. They all share a common parking lot, a laundry building and are in sight of Offenhauer Towers, which run along a different part of Merry Street.

Because of railroad crossing laws, students in the University Apartments must commute two blocks south to Ridge Street before turning left to get to the western most edge of campus.

The residents, however, said the advantages of the space often made up for the trip.

Jason Mecchi, a sophomore English major living in one of the apartments, said he appreciated not having to share his living space with another student in the apartment. Mecchi, who had lived in a residence hall his freshman year, said he most appreciated “the space and having my own kitchen and everything.”

He said if he had a choice, he would have lived in an apartment-style space both his underclass years.

Another sophomore, accounting major Philip Bell, echoed Mecchi’s appreciation of the independence University apartments could give. “I live alone, so it’s nice to have my own place,” he said, adding it was very convenient to have the apartment so close to campus.

Bell also noted that, though he had not met freshman who were living in the apartments, he knew of incoming freshmen who were excited by the prospect of off-campus living.

The apartments not only hold single renters, but also groups of students.

Makenna Geise, a sophomore majoring in high school math education, said she and three of her friends decided to live together following their freshman year in Centennial Hall. Due to the selective housing processes of locations like Falcon Heights, which she described as “random,” Geise and her roommates thought the apartments would be the best fit.

“We really like it,” she said, pointing out that an appeal of living there was she and her friends “still have the opportunity to be off campus.” Part of that appeal was not paying for certain campus-required amenities, like a meal plan.

All three residents said the location of the place on the other side of the tracks was not annoying enough to frustrate them.

The University Apartments are popular among their residents, and some students did not even know they existed.

“When choosing (the University), I was thinking about Centennial Hall, and I wasn’t thinking about other residence halls”, freshman communications major Julie Muntean said. She was not actively aware of the possibility she could be living off-campus her freshman year of college.

“(It) probably would have made me question it,” she said when asked if that knowledge would have affected her decision to apply to the University, “but I still would have picked it.”

Sophomore nursing major Amber Anderson, who also lives on campus, said she agreed applying to the University with that possibility of off-campus living would have been worth it.

Anderson, who came to study from another state, said she had not necessarily known about the possible introduction of off-campus housing when she first applied to the University, but she would have appreciated the opportunity to not live on campus at all due to out-of-state costs. “Freshmen need to be on campus,” she added, “(but) off-campus should be an option.”

Lawrie said in March a major goal for Residence Life was to completely dissolve the University’s use of these buildings, but no exact year has been given for that action. He also did not indicate whether plans for on-campus buildings to replace these apartments have taken root yet.

Until that time, however, newer University students can appreciate a taste of independent living.

The closures will happen to two of the apartment buildings on North Enterprise Street, a banner announcing leasing openings on one of the buildings’ brick sidings already. Rooming situations will also change, as every available room will consist of three single bedrooms attached to a living room suite with a kitchen and shared private bathroom.

The apartments will house over 80 students but only ones returning to campus. Check out the Residence Life website for more details.