Housing exceeds capacity

Housing at the University of South Dakota for the 2013-2014 term is projected to hit 101 percent capacity for the second consecutive year.

Dean of Students Kimberly Grieve said the incoming first-year class for the fall 2013 semester will be similar to the first-year class of the fall 2012 semester.

“We will most likely be using the lounges in the beginning,” Grieve said.

According to Grieve, the university has a capacity of 2,002 students, and 2,205 with renovated space.

Grieve said when the university reaches over 100 percent capacity students are placed in renovated space, lounges and study rooms.

The university began last semester at 101 percent capacity, which has since dropped to 91 percent, a drop Provost Chuck Staben said is common from year to year.

According to Institutional Research’s stat highlights for fall 2012, 88 percent of first-time, first-year students lived on campus, and 33 percent of remaining undergraduates lived on campus.

Although the incoming first-year class is expected to be large, Grieve said it is unlikely capacity will be as high as 108 or 105 percent by the first day of class.

“We won’t know until the final numbers are in,” Grieve said. “We are thinking we will be right at capacity. Enrollment is showing that we won’t have that problem yet.”

However, Staben said numbers as high as 108 percent are not unreasonable.

“One hundred and eight percent is high, but not uncommon,” Staben said.

Staben said if a floor is supposed to house 80 students, and lounges and study rooms are renovated for student living in order to fit six more students on the floor, then the floor has reached 108 percent capacity and still houses students on campus.

But, a high capacity rate does not necessarily translate to the construction of a new residence hall on campus.

“It depends on the demand of capacity and other factors,” Staben said. “We aren’t going to build a building just for that 8 percent.”

If enrollment becomes greater than available housing, even after renovated space is used, students will be placed in “more than suitable accommodations,” Grieve said.

Building a new residence hall was discussed at the March 3 Faculty Senate meeting, where it was expressed the South Dakota Board of Regents wants to see a demand before construction can be approved.

Board of Regent General Counsel James Shekleton said he has not heard of a policy where the university would have to be overcapacity for a certain number of years before new housing could be approved.

“We don’t want to over construct if demand is slack,” Shekleton said. “It would be a combination of demand and price. We have to question the cost of putting it off.”

Shekleton said that the BOR has to consider whether building a new residence hall would draw more students, or keep them away.

“We have to make sure the cost of construction will not raise the cost of attendance to the point of discouraging students to attend,” Shekleton said.

If the decision to build another residence hall was to be made, Staben said a new unit, which is likely to be near Coyote Village, the earliest the idea could be conceived would be in the fall, and the earliest construction, which would take about a year, could begin would be next spring.

First-year Leah Banks views expanding housing as a positive event for the university.

“It’s a great opportunity for the university to keep expanding and draw more students toward attending college here,” Banks said.

Banks, however, does find issue with the university being overcapacity.

“I do believe it’s a little ridiculous, but I do think [USD] is and has been handling the situation the best way they can,” Banks said.

Despite students living in renovated space for overflow housing, Grieve said the response has been positive.

“I have not heard a single complaint,” Grieve said.

First-year Jordan German found herself placed in renovated space, a lounge, until Thanksgiving fall semester. She started the semester with two roommates, but one soon left the university.

“I preferred the lounge, but it is homey in my room,” German said.

German was told before she arrived at the university that she would be in a lounge, but found out that leaving the lounge would be harder than moving in.

“We found out that we would have to move out with just a few weeks of the semester [left],” German said. “We had to be out by a date or we would get fined. They said they wanted the lounge open for finals.”

Despite trouble leaving, German found living in renovated space to be a positive experience.

“I’d be ok doing it again,” German said.