Freshman student admissions numbers are at a record high this year, which is leading to confusion with on-campus housing.
There are 3,900 freshmen students enrolled this year, which is a 22% increase from 2022. This is the most freshmen BGSU has ever seen.
In the first few days of the semester, there were rumors that resident advisors were being forced to live with unwanted roommates because of the number of students admitted for the 2024-2025 school year.
Brian Heilmeier, Director of Student Engagement and Resident Life, said the possibility of sharing a room should not come as a surprise to RAs coming into the fall semester.
“Anytime resident advisors sign their contract for the next school year, I think this year it was in April, we tell them at that point that there is a chance that they could have to share rooms. We also do another outreach during the summer and say that this could happen,” said Heilmeier.
Though resident advisors are likely excited about the opportunity to live in a single room, it is not guaranteed in their contract.
“This is the first year that RAs were assigned a roommate, but none of those roommates moved in unless the RA requested that roommate,” said Heilmeier. “A few things that folks don’t always realize is that, during the last few weeks going into the semester, a lot of change happens. Some people decide they want to live at home, some decide they want to transfer to a different school. A lot of shifting happens during that time.”
This means RAs are not currently living with any roommates that they did not ask to live with.
Heilmeier said RAs were informed during the summer that it is more than likely they would be living with someone else.
“Back when they signed we went through, because we were trending high, we had a conversation with them then. We also had a message go out in July to all the RAs that it was looking that way, then we did an outreach when they were here during training and they were assigned after that, and we just kept talking with them as things continued to change,” said Heilmeier.
The beginning of the year brings much change to people’s lives, and sometimes students change their mind about their living situation or even where they attend college. BGSU was prepared to have more students living in the dorms than the amount of students that actually showed up.
Many people were left without roommates because people changed their plans. Because of this, students have to continue to be moved around in order to make the living situation better for everyone.
This continuous moving around has started to frustrate people. Some have turned to posting on social media for their complaints.
A mother on a BGSU families private Facebook group said her daughter needs to find a new roommate, due to her initially being assigned to an RA’s room.
“Daughter is in Kreischer and needs new roommate, same building preferred, open to others. She currently is in RA’s room and was informed they do not need to room with others now,” said the BGSU mom.
The residence hall Kohl is also a source of concern regarding the housing of the large student body. Heilmeier said the Residence Life team can make it work.
“What’s nice about our residence halls is that they are flexible,” said Heilmeier. “Kohl is one of our smallest residence halls, so we are in a much better position than last year when McDonald was shut down.”
Because of recent hall renovations, all four Kreischer buildings are now open for student housing.
There is a rule that all first and second year students must live on campus, but Heilmeier said there are some exceptions to that rule.
“There is a commuter exemption, you have to live within a certain distance to campus. If you have a certain amount of credits coming in, you can apply to live off campus. And there are other exemptions that you can apply for through student housing,” said Heilmeier.
