CINCINNATI — The University of Cincinnati set record enrollment this year, with more than 50,000 students starting their first week of classesfor the fall semester.
Some students say that trying to find campus housing is a nightmare — and that the record enrollment hasn't necessarily been beneficial for them.
"The housing problem is just really annoying," said sophomore Erin Caudioo. "It’s unnecessary."
Caudioo said she tried to live on campus this year but was told there was no room.
"I feel like they don't care about their students. They care more about money," Caudioo said. "They should be prioritizing students; there's no reason sophomores shouldn't be able to live on campus.”
The student population has only grown for the past decade as UC has reported record enrollment every year for the last 10 years.
London Burge is a freshman at UC and lives on campus. She said the process was easy for her, but many others weren’t so lucky.
"I kinda feel bad for those people. I just got here and I'm already having to look at where I’m gonna live at next year," Burge said. "I don't even think I’m going to go through the process, my friends that are sophomores and stuff, they don't get housing."
Jack Miner, vice provost of enrollment with the university, said they know they don’t have enough housing, but they're working on a solution.
"We’ve really made some great improvements this year, really over the last few years just keeping ahead of our growth with the housing," Miner said. "We've been using supplements. Last year, we used hotels for a few weeks."
Some students wondered why the university would accept record enrollment numbers when they already didn’t have enough housing to accommodate students.
"Why accept is a very easy one for us," Miner said. "We never want to be in a situation where we're slamming the door on someone’s face to a future just because of a housing situation.”
The UC Board of Trustees announced Tuesday they will be making an investment into new residence halls.
"I think it’s about $100 million in investment in just the next few years, so this will absolutely be serving students who are in high school now," Miner said.
In addition to building new dorms, he said they're also renovating existing residence halls.
Miner said 600 new beds will be available next fall, once the renovation of Siddall Hall is complete.
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