Cole Greer, of Wheeling, helps students move their household items into the residence halls as Marshall’s Week of Welcome begins with freshmen move-in day on Aug. 13, 2024.
Cole Greer, of Wheeling, helps students move their household items into the residence halls as Marshall’s Week of Welcome begins with freshmen move-in day on Aug. 13, 2024.
RYAN FISCHER | HD Media
HUNTINGTON — Marshall University’s higher number of students wanting to live on campus in the fall may mean the school has to employ temporary, alternative housing locations.
Mistie Bibbee, director of housing and residence life, said so far, Marshall has considered converting study rooms into dormitories, turning some larger rooms into temporary triples or having students share a room with a resident assistant. She said the university has also blocked off 30 rooms at a local hotel in case it would need them.
“We prepare because numbers look like we could use it. Will we use it this year? We may,†Bibbee said. “It’s just how the numbers play out as cancellations come in.â€
Bibbee was not able to give an estimate of how many students the university has over its current housing capacity, as she said the number is changing by the hour while students cancel their housing or others may not show.
Planning to have additional students is part of a standard process, Bibbee said. This time last year, she said the university prepared for a similar situation where students would have temporary living arrangements, but it was not needed because enough students had canceled their housing plans by the beginning of the semester.
Last year, Bibbee said there were about 100 cancellations between mid-July and freshman move-in.
Bibbee said the university will make its final housing assignments by July 31, and students will be notified if they have been assigned to temporary housing.
Temporary housing could be an option
“Right now, I would say we will potentially start out the year with some students in temporary housing," Bibbee said. "But the key word is that it would be temporary, and they would be notified before they arrived.
Bibbee adding those people would likely be students who completed their housing agreements later.
If a student is placed in temporary housing, she said they would receive a $50-per-week credit to their student account until they are moved to a permanent location. Other students who may share space unexpectedly with these students via a triplet room would also receive a $50 credit each week.
She said the university is currently considering the freshmen floor of Buskirk Hall for temporary triple rooms, where dorms are already larger.
An RA who shares a room with another student temporarily would receive $50 in Herd Points to use on campus at places like the bookstore or Marshall’s dining facilities, as they already receive a free room.
At this point, she said the university is still receiving requests for housing agreements from students who are outside of the residency requirements, which the university has had to turn down to ensure it has enough space for incoming freshmen who are required to be on campus.
The overflow in on-campus housing requests, Bibbee said, may be due to Marshall’s increasing enrollment, and more students are choosing to live on campus beyond their freshman year.
Bibbee said the university has replaced bathrooms, updated flooring and provided free laundry services for students in residence halls. She said there has also been Resident Life programming, which she believes is attracting students to on-campus living.
In the past few years, Bibbee said, Marshall has not had to deal with the possibility of an overflow of students asking to live on campus, but it is not a problem unique just to Marshall.
Since last month, Marshall’s Holderby Hall, which was previously decommissioned as a residence hall for five years, has been demolished to make way for ADA-compliant student housing, Director of Communications Leah Payne said.
CLICK HERE to follow the ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä Gazette-Mail and receive
