Billings, Kim

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University of New HampshireUniversity of New Hampshire Scholars' RepositoryMedia Relations Administrative Offices11-17-2006UNH Already Preparing For Next Year's First-YearStudent ClassKim BillingsFollow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/newsThis News Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Administrative Offices at University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It hasbeen accepted for inclusion in Media Relations by an authorized administrator of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. For moreinformation, please contact nicole.hentz@unh.edu.Recommended CitationBillings, Kim, "UNH Already Preparing For Next Year's First-Year Student Class" (2006). UNH Today. 1260.https://scholars.unh.edu/news/12609/20/17, 12)54 PMUNH Already Preparing For Next Year's First-Year Student ClassPage 1 of 2http://www.unh.edu/delete/news/cj_nr/2006/nov/kb17students.cfm.html UNH Already Preparing For Next Year's First-YearStudent ClassOfficials Talking To Student Leaders This WeekContact:  Kim Billings 603-862-1558University SpokespersonNovember 17, 2006DURHAM, N.H. -- University of New Hampshire officials said this week that the number ofapplications for next year’s entering first-year class already exceeds the record numberreceived at the same time last year.“Students choosing to attend college continue to express strong interest in UNH,” said MarkRubinstein, vice president for student and academic services. “UNH continues to represent thebest of what students are seeking from a college education: academically rigorous programs,complementary research and co-curricular opportunities, sufficient breadth of programs toprovide choice, and yet still small enough to be personal.”Although the number of students who will be accepted for the fall 2007 freshman class isexpected to be much smaller than this year’s entering class, Rubinstein says that even thesmaller incoming class won’t fully resolve the issues of housing demand.   “We are reaching out to students now to hear their input on options we may need to consider,”he explained. “We would rather students know well ahead of time about these options insteadof being surprised in the spring.”Uncertainty around the number of current resident students who will want to sign up to liveon campus next year is one consideration housing officials must consider, particularly in lightof the recent Gables expansion and new residence halls coming online, scheduled for August,if construction stays on schedule. At the same time, Fairchild Hall will be off-line forrenovations next fall. In addition, UNH-owned Woodside Apartments is slated to becomemixed use so graduate students have more housing options on campus.“With the information we have now and based on past trends, we are anticipating that wecould have a potential of approximately 300 students needing to be housed as a third personin a double room or in lounges,” explained William Conk, UNH director of housing. He says there are three options for managing housing needs, and they are being discussedwith students this week. One option would be to increase the number of beds in the Mills suites and Woodside orGables apartments by making some rooms triples. As the university did this semester, thenumber of triples in traditional residence halls would increase. Doing so would spread the useof triples to include upper class students as well as first-year students, thus reducing the9/20/17, 12)54 PMUNH Already Preparing For Next Year's First-Year Student ClassPage 2 of 2http://www.unh.edu/delete/news/cj_nr/2006/nov/kb17students.cfm.htmlpressure that currently rests primarily with first-year students. “If we go in this direction,” said Conk, “we would continue our practice of reducing the perstudent room rates for those students in triples, thus rendering the strategy ‘revenue neutral’for the university and offering our students some incentive to choose this option.”Another serious option is to conduct a housing lottery, where UNH Housing randomly identifiesresident students who will be juniors and seniors next year, who would not be eligible forhousing beyond this academic year. Students living in Woodside and Gables apartments arenot included in the lottery.The last time UNH conducted a lottery was in 2002. If a decision is made to conduct a lottery, a computer program randomly assigns lotterynumbers to all juniors and seniors living in residence halls, not apartments, and notifies themof this number before the end of the semester. This notification allows student with a lownumber to begin to prepare for the following fall semester, making decisions as they seeappropriate.When students return from the holiday break in January, the room sign-up process for nextfall proceeds as normal with apartment sign up taking place and applications forundergraduate residence halls received. Based upon total number of applications received for housing, not including those who havesigned up for apartments, a final decision on the number of students to lottery off campus willbe made and students will be notified of this decision. The decision, said Conk, would be communicated to students before Spring Break. “We will do the best we can to accommodate as many resident students as we can,” he said.“The new residence halls help enormously, but we still find it difficult to keep up with thedemand. On-campus housing is so attractive now that more and more of our students want tostay.”

UNH Already Preparing For Next Year\u27s First-Year Student Class

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UNH Already Preparing For Next Year\u27s First-Year Student Class

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