Freshman Jolie Mills came to DePaul from Michigan excited for the experience of living away from home. Like many first-year students, Mills looked forward to having a roommate and was eager to move into Clifton-Fullerton. 

Hoping for a spacious room, Mills was soon notified she would be one of three roommates living in a space originally meant for two. She didn’t anticipate the tight living conditions.

“We always knew there was going to be a third person in the room, but we didn’t necessarily ask to be in a three-person room,” Mills said. “It was hard to get situated at first, because it’s a smaller room, with more people and more stuff.”

Like Mills, many other students are placed in housing that isn’t designed for the number of residents who are actually living in it.  According to a 2015 Housing Occupancy Report, many of DePaul’s dorms on the Lincoln Park and Loop campuses are over capacity.

The Clifton-Fullerton Hall by design can hold up to 333 residents.  The report shows that the residential hall is holding 378 students at the moment. This brings Clifton-Fullerton in at a 114 percent occupancy rate, with 45 expanded spaces (number of occupied spaces over capacity), which add beds and appliances to the dorm rooms.

“I wouldn’t really suggest like putting three people in a room that’s the size of a double,” Mills said. “They say it’s bigger, but it’s only a little bigger.”

When Mills and her roommates first arrived at their room, there was barely any space for their belongings. “The room was a mess when we first got here,” Mills said. The three roommates ended up having to rearrange the entire room to create as much space as they could. Even with the rearrangements, they still struggled with space creating enough space.

Mills and one of her roommates share a bunk bed a few steps away from the entrance door. Mills sleeps on the bottom bunk. Her desk where she studies is directly next to her bed. On the right side of her desk she crams photos, books and paperwork, and other belongings. Across from Mills is her third roommates lofted bed, which stands right above her desk. All of the closet units are right next to the lofted bed, where all three roommate’s keep their clothes. Anything that can’t fit into their shelving units or closets finds its way onto the floor. The roommates share a bathroom that can be entered from inside their room. But they aren’t the only ones using it, since they share it with two other residents that live next door. All together there are five people sharing one bathroom with two sinks.

Clifton-Fullerton isn’t the only residential hall with high occupancy rates. The report shows that Belden-Racine Hall can hold 254 students by design, but currently holds 281 students, which makes it 27 over capacity of the design capacity. This residential hall is 111 percent over capacity.

Seton Hall is another example of over occupancy rates. According to the Occupancy Report, by design the hall can hold 235 residents. The building currently holds 238 students, making it three students over capacity. The percent of over capacity for this hall is 101 percent.

The University Center in the Loop is over capacity as well. By design it can hold 319 DePaul residents and is currently holding 341 students. It is 22 spaces over capacity and has a 107 percent occupancy rate.

The number of expansions is due to a converted housing program set in place by the Housing Services Department. Rick Moreci, director of housing services, said the program adds furniture to the rooms and gives 20 percent off of the residential cost to the students entering converted housing.

In this form of housing, Morcei said it isn’t required for a student to move out, if they choose not to. In temporary housing, the student can be placed in residential hall study lounges that have been turned into furnished rooms. Other options for temporary housing are spaces reserved for emergencies and in some cases vacant dorms are used. The options are available to students until they’re assigned to a permanent room, he said.

“Clifton-Fullerton will probably stay over 100 percent all year, that doesn’t mean there aren’t empty beds in Clifton-Fullerton; it means that that many more people decided to stay in converted housing and it’s already above the designed capacity,” Morcei said.

Although there’s a consistency of over occupancy rates, there are residential halls that have vacancies, but they’re very minimal. For instance, Sanctuary Townhomes are at 98 percent occupancy rate. By design, the building holds 112 students, but they have 110 students in the building, leaving two spaces vacant. McCabe Hall by design can hold 186 people, and currently holds 184 students. It’s 99 percent occupied, and has two vacancies.

There are other housing options for students waiting in line for permanent housing. With high demand for on-campus dorms, some students are forced to wait on the waitlist in hopes of receiving some form of housing.

“I have friends that are transferring to DePaul and they’ve been on the waitlist to be in the residents hall since like November, and they’re still not in,” Alex Vancil, a freshman, said. “They’re just living at home right now.”

The number of converted and temporary housing in total is a little more than 100 people, Moreci said. The amount of alternate housing options is kept low, he said.

The housing department doesn’t want to overwhelm students already living on campus by creating an excessive amount of uncomfortable living conditions.  Moreci said that staff could become overwhelmed with too many students; decreasing the quality of assistance the staff can give to each student living in the residential halls. The number of students that receive alternative housing doesn’t guarantee that some people won’t get turned away, but it does lower the amount of people on the waitlist, Moreci said.

“We don’t want to turn any students away, and we already do turn some away,” Moreci said. “This has been a number that has worked well for us, because it minimizes our waitlist, and by the time we get to fall, our waitlist is really small.”

A lot goes into determining which students will be turned away from living on campus. Moreci pointed out that many students on the waitlist are local and can commute to DePaul, if they weren’t able to get campus housing.

Another way of choosing who will get housing is selected upon the time they applied for the housing. If a local student applied in January and an out-of-state student applied in June, the student that applied in January would receive priority, and vice-versa. Moreci said that if a local student and a out-of-state student applied within the same time range, even if the local student applied for housing before the out-of-state student, the student from out-of-state would get priority, because they may not come to DePaul at all, compared to a local student that could most likely commute to DePaul.

“There are a lot of different factors that go into this,” Moreci said. “The wider the gap is when agreements were received, the more preference given to the earlier date of the agreement. The smaller the gap, the more preference is given to where the person is coming from.”

Typically the students who remain on the waitlist through the fall are local, and have the opportunity to commute to DePaul, said Moreci. He added that students enjoy the experience of DePaul campus life, with 70 percent of the freshmen class currently living on campus. He also said that the retention rate for these freshmen returning to the dorms their sophomore year ranges between 400-500 out of about 1700 freshmen that live on campus. Moreci followed by giving rational as to why having less than half of the students coming back to live on campus benefits students that haven’t had the chance to live in DePaul housing.

“We actually have the right number of people to return to still make way for the new freshmen class coming in. I think retention is an important issue, but we’re in kind of a unique position at DePaul where, we’ve got enough housing to pretty much serve everyone,” Moreci said.

Adam Morgan, assistant director of assignments, made it clear that students are never “turned away.” He said that housing services always makes an effort to provide other options for students to either live on-campus, in temporary and converted housing, or areas around DePaul’s campus. So if a student can’t get housing during the quarter they applied for, then they’d be given other options or remain on the waitlist until space opens up for them. If a student is ever on a waitlist, they may wait for housing, but it depends on how long they’re willing to wait. He also said that many times students are on the waitlist, because they have individual choices.

“We never stop assigning,” Morgan said. “A lot of the time the waitlist is based on individual preferences and or concerns.”

Moreci acknowledged that there may be short waiting lists and some students may not return due to limited space. He added that his team surveys and looks over student comments, but hasn’t come across data that supports student’s leaving, because of space issues.

Future plans for Moreci and his housing team consists of providing on-campus housing for as many students as they can. He said no current projects are in the works, but plans for future housing developments haven’t been mapped out yet. The physical process of creating new ideas for more housing may not happen until years down the road.

For Mills, she’s had enough of being cramped in a room meant for two. After her freshman year concludes, Mills plans on moving off campus into her own apartment. Although she has created close bonds with her roommates and enjoys their company, Mills said she needs more space to feel comfortable.