Two weeks ago, Anne Williams was frustrated as she read an email from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette informing her that her son would be living in a hotel during his freshman year. Within days, she decided to withdraw him from the university and enrolled him at a different school.

In her opinion, the university’s sudden notice about the increased housing costs gave her family little time to respond, which she found unacceptable. Although the university later offered to pay for the hotel stay, by that point, Williams and her son were visiting a new school.

This highlights the difficult decisions some families are facing as students return to college this fall. As the broader issue of affordable housing in the United States continues, college enrollment is back to levels seen before the pandemic. Many universities mandate that first-year students live on campus, and last spring saw a sharper increase in freshmen enrollment compared to the overall undergraduate population, according to data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

Some institutions are considering unusual methods to deal with the housing shortage. Louisiana State University, for example, offered new freshmen whose families are local a $3,000 incentive to commute from home instead of residing in dorms, as reported by a local news station in July.

Similarly, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign provided a $2,000 credit to students who canceled their housing contracts, along with 100 meal vouchers. The university also shared that they would have some resident advisors share rooms for a period, a change that left some students unhappy, according to Inside Higher Ed.

Chris Axtman-Barker, a spokesperson for Urbana-Champaign, stated that various factors complicated their ability to forecast housing requirements, including significant delays in the federal financial aid process. Ultimately, the university experienced a larger-than-expected enrollment.

“We apologize for any inconvenience caused by the changes in student housing,” he stated.

Many students at different campuses are grappling with new challenges as they consider their college experiences. In recent years, housing insecurity has worsened among low-income students. Mark Huelsman, the director of policy and advocacy at Temple University’s Hope Center, noted that this issue has persisted at both the national and campus levels for quite some time.

“This is a problem that the country hasn’t been able to address effectively,” he expressed.

Increased Enrollment Causing ‘Bottleneck’

With growing enrollments, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette has been aware since last year that a housing issue might arise this fall. DeWayne Bowie, the school’s vice president of enrollment management, mentioned in an interview that the freshman class has increased by about one-third over the last five years, a change credited to improved marketing and a newly acquired reputation.

Similar to many institutions, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette expects first-year students to stay on campus (as space allows). The rising number of freshmen, along with a growing fraction of older students opting to remain in dormitories, has put pressure on the university’s housing resources.

“This has resulted in a bottleneck for us,” he added.

To tackle this issue, the university reached out to nearby apartment complexes to refer overflow students to them once the dorms filled up. After the housing waitlist exceeded 500 students over the summer, the administrators sought additional solutions. They approached local hotels to establish lease agreements, a strategy previously employed when new dorms were being built.

The university eventually finalized deals with two hotels and cleared the housing waitlist. However, unless students received specific scholarships or grants, they were expected to pay around $1,000 more for hotel housing compared to living on campus, he explained.

It wasn’t the outcome Anne Williams and her 18-year-old Ethan, the son of Anne, had initially registered for classes but decided not to attend due to a recent change. Anne quickly organized a visit to Nicholls State University, a public college that her older son currently attends and from which she herself graduated. Ethan appreciated the campus, emphasizing how crucial it was for him to live right there. The tuition was about the same as his original choice. He promptly enrolled and began his classes on Monday.

“It was quite a rush for us,” his father commented.

Colleges Relying on Hotel Space

Nicholls State isn’t the only college relying on hotels to meet housing demands this fall.

The New College of Florida, a public university facing significant external scrutiny for political reasons, renewed its approximately $4 million agreement with a local hotel due to a housing shortage this year. Furthermore, San Jose State University on the West Coast recently declared plans to acquire a luxury hotel for $165 million as part of its housing strategy.

“Expanding is quite a challenge,” said Mari Fuentes-Martin, the university’s vice president for student affairs, in an interview with YSL News. “For us to grow, we must expand into downtown San Jose.”

In January, Boston city officials approved Northeastern University’s proposal to convert a hotel near Fenway Park into accommodation for around 900 students. Ella Warner, a 19-year-old sophomore, was assigned to that hotel after returning from a study abroad program in her freshman fall. Initially anxious about staying there and worried about missing the social experience of on-campus life, she eventually adjusted and appreciated the hotel setting.

“It really requires a specific mindset to thrive in that situation,” she noted.

Initially, sharing a room that lacked a full kitchen posed challenges for her vegetarian lifestyle, but she managed to adapt with a diet of mainly soups and salads.

According to Ed Gavaghan, a spokesperson for Northeastern, the university’s satellite locations in London and California have eased the pressure to house younger students in Boston.

“The demand for a Northeastern education has never been greater,” he stated.

The sentiment expressed by Gavaghan mirrors what officials are relaying about 1,600 miles away in Louisiana, where Ethan Williams is now enrolled alongside his older brother. Although Ethan’s new university doesn’t offer the electrical engineering program he initially wanted, his mother remains hopeful that he is in the right situation – at least for the time being.

“I’m confident he’ll thrive,” she shared.

Zachary Schermele reports on education and breaking news for YSL News.