Are You In Or Out: New Housing Application Fee

While students are enjoying the start of a new spring semester and seeing how time is starting to fly by, many students are starting to gear their focus toward where they will be residing next semester. An Instagram post made by Southern University’s Reslife sent a wave of shock through the student body. Reslife made a post stating that on February 1 at noon, housing applications would open but with a new rule, which is an application fee for new students and transfer with a fee of $150 and returning students with a fee of $75.
Housing Director, Tracie Abraham explained the reason behind the decision on having an application fee. When asked how this all came into play, she responded, “We have been trying to control our housing issue for the last five to six years now, and every year, there is a high demand for on-campus housing. So, we are trying to control the number of applicants we get in so that there will not be a waiting list”. The good thing about this is that they are seeing a high number of students who want to attend or also continue their studies at Southern, but since Southern had a free application process without a structure in place for students to apply for housing, it leaves the website open for anyone to apply and do multiple housing applications. Abraham stated that the last housing application that took place had “well over 800 applicants in just one week for returning students and about 200 for new student applications. The downside to this was that students were applying, but once they decided that they no longer wanted to be on campus forgot to cancel their housing, which in the end, would take a spot from students who could benefit from living on campus, specifically the out-of-state students.
Taniya Irving, a Sophomore majoring in Political Science from Dallas, Texas, expounded on how she felt about the application fee and had this to say, “ I feel like it’s not needed since it’s something new and my freshmen year this wasn’t required because we are already paying a lot of money to go here.” Irving was asked if she thought this would make a difference she said, “I feel like they should just try it out for one year and see how it goes, but honestly, I feel like we are all on the same page as far as the students we feel as though it is not needed.” Kyle Brumfield, a Freshman majoring in Animal Science from Opelousas, Louisiana, said this about the fee, “ I feel like the fee is necessary, but some of the rules that we have for housing could change, specifically visitation hours.”
There are two different takes on the housing fee one is from a student who has been on the campus for a little while and shares the same thoughts as other upperclassmen on why there is all of a sudden a fee with no warning. Compared to a newcomer on the bluff who sees it as if there is going to be a fee for me to apply for housing then there should be some changes in the rules that all students must follow. All in all, Southern wants to be open for all students administration is just trying to find a way for everyone to have the true HBCU experience.