Senior Housing Surprise

By Jade Thompson

Mercer University’s class of 2019 became very concerned this semester when in the middle of February they were told there was no room for them to live on campus for their senior years and they had to seek other housing.

In the past, seniors were able to live on campus and they could also stay in the lofts. With class numbers rising each year, most campus housing will be occupied and rising seniors were not offered the lofts.

Christian Wells Assistant Director of Housing Residence life said as unfortunate as it can be for the seniors, this is a good sign because it means we are growing and students want to be on campus.

“If it have a larger junior class then they are going to fill up the Lofts. The Gardens as well as the other places… it’s really kind of like a numbers game,” he said.

Freshmen through juniors are required to live on campus. This meant those students get to be placed first before seniors could pick housing. The staff calculated the demand, and that is how they knew there would not be enough room.

Jordan Pidcock, a rising senior, says she doesn’t think they were informed in a timely manner.

“ There was not enough notice, if we had not already considered moving off campus we would be in a hard place,” she said.

Wells disagreed.

“This year we wanted to communicate earlier once we noticed we not have enough housing because that is what our senior from last year said in a survey,” he said.

Once the information was sent to rising seniors, one of their graduate hall directors hosted an off campus fair for seniors so they had an opportunity to meet different apartment vendors. They also had flyers explaining what to look for and safe places off campus.

Wells said he hopes next year will be different because the Lofts are adding 300 beds and could that greatly reduce the space issue next year.