“Southern Will Lose Students”: The Housing Application for 2024-2025 Reaches Capacity

On March 15th via the Department of Residential Life and Housing Instagram account, it was announced that the returning student’s application had been closed as housing has reached the maximum capacity for the upcoming semester. This comes a month and a half after the application opened on February 1st. With the closing date coming seemingly abruptly this has left many students with concerns about where they will be laying their head for the upcoming semester.
Now it is no secret that in recent years Southern University and A&M College has had their fair share of housing issues. Having such high attendance and acceptance rates it is no surprise that these applications are filling quickly and there is simply not enough beds on our campus to accommodate all students. Being that half of the beds are designated to returning students, we saw the introduction of the $75 application fee which left many students upset as it did not guarantee housing, though this fee had the right intentions of stopping students from filling out the application with no intent of staying on campus. Many students who desire to stay on campus were unable to complete their application because they simply because did not have the money to submit their applications.
Speaking with sophomore Amaya Hawkins, who is a student that has been displaced because of her own issues with housing, had to say: “Dealing with my own struggles with housing, I believe that it is disheartening and very unfortunate for students to constantly have to fight to try and figure out where they’re going to live simply to get an education.”
Upon speaking with members of the Department of Residential Life and Housing, unfortunately for returning students the department has already reached their quota for the number of beds that are designated to returning students. The university simply does not have enough beds to house all the students to which they accept. This prompted the closing of the application as there is already a waiting list for housing for the upcoming semester. Which unfortunately for the students at Southern University means many will have to find alternative solutions for housing.
This is the time to acknowledge the bigger problem within not only the Southern University community but also the HBCU community everywhere. Every year we are in a constant housing crisis as there are simply not enough places for students to lay their heads. While the Department of Residential Life and Housing often takes the blame for the lack of housing, they cannot give students housing assignments in rooms that they simply do not have.
On March 15, 2024, SUBR Res Life took to Instagram to share news of returning applicant capacity stating: “We are currently not taking any applications. The New Resident Application is available. Returning Students who have not applied at this point will have to wait and see if we reopen the application once we begin assignments and verify qualifications. This process will not begin until the completion of the spring 2024 semester.”
With mass uncertainty over if they will receive rooms, many students such as Haley Rodgers, a freshman from Boston, Massachusetts, had this to say: “Being an out of state student it’s just disheartening to hear that I probably won’t have housing for next year. It’s the way Southern will lose students because there’s not enough (housing) to accommodate everybody.”
Stay up to date with the Southern Digest for more updates on the housing process in the upcoming future.