Low enrollment numbers lead to loss of revenue, vacancies in residence halls
On-campus residence halls have experienced a drop in occupancy with some rooms only housing one or two residents, while other rooms remain completely vacant.
On Tuesday, Central Michigan University released the enrollment numbers for the fall 2012 semester. As reported by Central Michigan Life, freshman enrollment is down to 3,417 for the 2012-13 school year; a 12 percent drop from last year.
The Office of Residence Life has been encountering challenges of its own this year as a result of there being fewer high school graduates and therefore a smaller freshman class. Many of the residence halls on campus have been experiencing lower resident numbers, leaving some rooms below capacity.
"The only rooms we have vacant this year (in Barnes Hall) are our single rooms, which come with an additional premium in addition (to room and board)," Luanne Goffnett, residence hall director for Barnes Hall said.
Goffnett said she was pleased overall with her resident numbers in Barnes Hall, because, while the numbers across the university are lower, her hall is near full capacity for residents.
Currently, the semester rate to live in a residence hall is $4,188 for standard rooms with an unlimited meal plan. To have the same meal plan and live in Robinson Hall, students will pay $4,502. They will pay $4,816 if they decide to live in Campbell, Celani, Fabiano, Kesseler or Kulhavi Hall, with the unlimited meal plan.
The Office of Residence Life has experienced a tremendous turn of events from only two years ago, where many students living in residence halls were assigned a fifth roommate.
A major concern for these low numbers in the residence halls is how CMU will compensate for the major loss in revenue that is brought in by the 22 residence halls on campus.
"We anticipated these low numbers before the school year started and adjusted and then created our budget based on the revenue that we have to work with given these lower numbers in the residence halls," Associate Director of Residence Life Shaun Holtgreive said.
While there is no official record on exactly how many rooms remain vacant, Holtgreive said there are very few rooms on campus that sit completely empty. The rooms that currently are vacant remain available as an option for roommates who wish to change their housing arrangements for whatever reason.
Saint Clair sophomore Cody Armstrong lives alone in a room in Larzelere Hall that would normally house two students.
"It's like having your own apartment in the dorms. You can have privacy when you want it, and you're surrounded by friends when you don't," he said.
Armstrong said he noticed enrollment at CMU was lower than usual.
"It definitely says something about enrollment at our university that we have vacancies in rooms. Clearly, numbers are down from last year, because we had rooms overfilled whereas this year, there are multiple people with their own rooms," he said.
University Editor Catey Traylor contributed to this article.
