Everyone who reapplied for on-campus housing has received an invitation, according to an email sent by University Housing Thursday Feb. 21.
In total, there were 1,930 returning students who applied for on-campus housing for the 2013-14 year, Housing and Campus Life Director Tom Kane said. This has left housing with 104 extra vacancies for incoming students.
Kane said that the closing of Winkler, the most popular upperclassmen hall, changed the expected number of returners for next year compared to the expectation last year.
With these vacancies, housing will be able to open up more on campus housing for transfers, which is something housing would like to do, Kane said.
However, this is the same situation as last year.
“Everyone got invited and we still had some vacancies,” Kane said.
The residence halls that filled up the quickest were Appalachian Heights, Newland, Summit, then Mountaineer, all being upperclassmen residence halls, Kane said.
Students who will be living in a Residential Learning Community and Residence Assistants are guaranteed a spot on campus and do not go through the invitation system. This means about 700 students did not go through the invitation process, Kane said.
Kane said that students had three weeks to re-apply to live on campus. The deadline for applications was Feb. 14.
However, seniors who picked a residence hall they weren’t interested in and students who did not go through the re-application process in time can email housing after March 1 to be put on a cancelation list for a residence hall, Kane said.
Housing will have about 300 cancelations from now until the first day of the next school year, Kane said.
Freshman biology major Nichole Bursche decided to live on campus again next school year.
Bursche said she made the decision to stay on campus because of the atmosphere.
“There’s something about being on campus and dealing with everything around you that is really fun and exciting,” Bursche said. “I’m living next year again on west campus in Newland and I’m very excited.”
Bursche said being on west campus near football games, tailgating and the winter games give the feeling of living in a place that feels alive and active.
Story: STEPHANIE SANSOUCY, Senior News Reporter