Friday, Feb. 18, The College of William and Mary’s Residence Life sent an email to over 500 students, alerting them that they would not be guaranteed on-campus housing for the 2022-2023 academic year. These students did not participate in the room selection process that took place on Saturday, Feb. 19 and were instead put on a housing waitlist.
“The demand for campus housing next year currently exceeds the supply available,” the email read. “… Some students will withdraw from the Room Selection Process for a variety of reasons such as study abroad opportunities and other changes to circumstances. When this happens, wait listed students will be contacted with either a Room Selection time slot or assignment offer as these spaces open.”
This news came to the surprise of many juniors and seniors, who, before this email, were unaware that on-campus housing was not guaranteed. As it is mandatory for freshmen and sophomores to live in on-campus housing, the College’s lack of available units– especially with One Tribe Place closing for the next school year– along with the increasing size of the freshman class, have led to housing uncertainty for many students.
“Excluding spaces for students who are required to live on campus as well as those who are guaranteed housing (such as exchange students), there are 2,496 spaces in undergraduate housing,” College spokesperson Erin Zagursky wrote in an email. “As of today, the university has received 3,102 applications from students, including 76 who submitted applications after the deadline passed. Those applications will be processed outside of the waitlist, which will receive priority when spaces become available.”
Grace Morales ’24 was planning to study abroad for a semester during her junior year, and wanted to stay on campus so she wouldn’t have to worry about finding a sublease. Currently living in the Hispanic House, Morales says she wished she would have known sooner there was a chance she wasn’t receiving on-campus housing. She could’ve then pursued other housing options — such as same room selection which guarantees a student will be in their same room for the following year.
“So there were avenues I could have taken to prevent me from having to be waitlisted,” Morales said. “But because I didn’t know that the waitlist thing was going to happen, I couldn’t take any of those. It’s just really frustrating not being able to plan because now, I don’t know what I’m going to do. Off-campus housing is really expensive and you need a car. And now things are going to be really competitive.”
“So there were avenues I could have taken to prevent me from having to be waitlisted,” Morales said. “But because I didn’t know that the waitlist thing was going to happen, I couldn’t take any of those. It’s just really frustrating not being able to plan because now, I don’t know what I’m going to do. Off-campus housing is really expensive and you need a car. And now things are going to be really competitive.”
Morales now can’t live with the person she was supposed to room with, as they did not get waitlisted. She says that finding off-campus housing, along with potentially having to pay rent, house maintenance and paying utilities, was not something she wanted to deal with.
“One thing I wish is that they had told us a lot earlier, maybe in October, and just warned us that the process of getting on campus housing for juniors and seniors would be really competitive … and that way, we ourselves could decide to take the risk because I didn’t know there was a risk, so I couldn’t make a decision to take it or not,” Morales said. “But because I had a plan to live on campus and I was doing all the stuff you should do to live on-campus … It just derailed my plans. It’s not the end of the world, but it’s frustrating.”
Off-campus housing in Williamsburg has historically had its own set of problems, including not many available walkable housing units and affordability issues. Many walkable, affordable housing units are competitive for students, and their leases are signed during the fall semester.
Current Midtown Apartments opened in summer 2021 and were designed for and targeted to the College’s student population. As of Feb. 21, a leasing representative said the apartment complex currently has no available apartments — the only available space was a single bedroom in an apartment unit. According to the same representative, over 50 leases were sent out in the last three days and there was already a waitlist students could join.
Alex Funk ’23 said for his senior year he planned to live in a single dorm on-campus, and made sure to submit his housing application as early as possible. However, as the on-campus housing waitlist will randomly identify a student, rather than it being an actual ongoing numbered list, Funk said he is unsure whether to wait until the Aug. 1 deadline to see if he will be granted on-campus housing.
“The email says at many different points that I might get a spot. You know, I might get housing, but we just don’t know. So I guess I mean, that’s what I’m going to be doing, I’m going to be looking for an apartment … I don’t really want to stay off campus, so I’m just going to wait,” Funk said. “So I’ll know by August first if I’m housed … so between August first and whenever school starts, I’m going to need to find a place to live if I don’t have housing from the school.”
Similar to Morales, Funk said he just does not have the resources necessary to live off campus.
“If you live off campus, you basically need a car … I don’t have those resources,” Funk said. “I don’t have a car. I’m not going to be able to get a car for next semester. So if I do live off campus, I’m going to need to not only find a place, but find a place close enough to campus that I can walk to my classes… this is unreasonable to me.”
Griffin McCray ’24 created a petition titled “We Demand On-Campus Housing,” which has garnered 122 signatures and many comments, as of Feb. 21.
“I started the petition because while I may be able to seek an alternative, many others aren’t as fortunate,” McCray wrote. “Our students deserve the chance to complete their education and move into the job market without having to worry about something as basic as where they’re going to sleep at night … My goal with the petition is to reiterate to the administration that their students are all human beings with real needs and that the decisions the administration makes have real consequences for many of their students.”
Sunday, Feb. 20, Residence Life posted a statement to their Facebook page, apologizing for the timing of the waitlist notification.
“The Residence Life team planned to send the message much earlier in the day, but urgent matters arose that had to be resolved prior to the messages going out,” the message wrote. “The timing was not ideal; however, as the room selection process begins tomorrow, it was critical that messages be sent as soon as possible Friday, even if that meant an evening distribution. We are deeply sorry for the distress caused by the timing of the message.”
The post said that they are currently planning to have an off-campus fair for students.
“Residence Life recognizes and regrets the strain wait listed students and their families are experiencing — it is real and understandable,” the post read. “This is a challenging time and we are committed to doing all we can to house as many of our students next year as possible.”