'We still have a challenge': Florida A&M housing reaches capacity with 600 on waitlist

Florida A&M University housing for fall 2024 has recently reached capacity, leaving 600 students on stand-by ahead of the upcoming semester’s Aug. 26 start date.

At the same time, students who were fortunate enough to secure an on-campus bed following FAMU’s first come, first serve housing application process include over 1,500 newly admitted students — approximately 1,387 first-time-in-college (FTIC) students and 124 transfer students, according to FAMU Vice President for Student Affairs William E. Hudson Jr.

Hudson sent a letter to the FAMU National Alumni Association and its President Curtis Johnson Monday about the housing updates, highlighting the newly admitted students’ numbers as “encouraging news” before mentioning the hundreds of students still waiting for available on-campus housing.

“With an overwhelming response from returning students, we have an additional 600 registered and returning students who have submitted housing applications,” Hudson said in the letter.

The 600 returning students, which includes upperclassmen such as juniors and seniors, is out of 1,764 returning students who applied in total.

“They have all been notified that they are in standby status as the housing team continues to follow the assignments process throughout the summer as spaces become available through attrition and students cancel their reserved space.”

The reached capacity means all available FAMU student housing, including the university’s acquired apartments adjacent to campus — Rattler Pointes East and West at the former Citivue and Lighthouse at Brooklyn Yard complexes — are booked.

Two years ago, FAMU had a similar long waitlist during a 2022 housing crisis that left 506 students without an on-campus bed and on the hunt for off-campus housing.

But FAMU is not the only university facing an increased demand from students for on-campus housing.

Hudson says he met with the Florida State University System (SUS) Thursday morning along with vice presidents at the other public universities across the state, where they discussed the issue.

“All of the universities, based on the information I received, are having some of the same issues as us,” Hudson told the Tallahassee Democrat Thursday afternoon. “The biggest issue is we're having more and more upperclassmen wanting to reside on campus because of the increase in costs off campus.”

Other universities with similar long waitlists include the University of South Florida and Florida Atlantic University, according to Hudson.

Florida State University is also at capacity and has 200 students on its waitlist.

"There are a few cancellations still coming in, and those openings are filled as they come in," FSU Spokesperson Amy Farnum-Patronis told the Democrat Thursday. "Throughout the summer, we encourage waitlisted students to seek alternative housing off campus."

New housing requirement for FAMU's returning students during 'growing trend'

While more students are interested in staying on-campus, the housing process for returning FAMU students changed this year.

Returning students at FAMU were required to be registered for fall classes ahead of time to qualify for on-campus housing. The deviation from previous years adds on to requirements of submitting a 2024-2025 housing application and paying any student account balances.

The early registration for fall classes allows the university to assist with enrollment management, which includes determining the number of courses needed as well as the hiring of additional faculty and adjunct professors to teach the courses.

As a result of the registration requirement for returning students, the university saw a 31% decrease in student debt owed to the university and a 22% increase in student early registration over the same period last year, according to Hudson.

“For the first time, every returning student with a fall housing assignment is registered for fall classes,” Hudson said in the letter.

Over 1,000 registered returning students have been assigned to on-campus living spaces for the fall.

In addition, the university’s housing process prioritization ahead of the fall consisted of new FTIC students, scholarship students, Living Learning Communities (LLCs) and resident assistants, all of which represented approximately 1,700 bed spaces.

Making FTIC students a priority means all freshmen enrolled at FAMU will be living on campus this fall for their first semester, which is a university requirement with the exception of freshmen who live within a 45-mile radius from campus and can choose to live off-campus instead.

As the total number of students assigned to on-campus housing is currently equal to the nearly 2,700 bed count at FAMU, the university also has some major plans underway to meet the increasing demand for living on campus.

The university is currently in Phase Two of its 700-bed residence hall project, where the new building on the gravel parking lot at Osceola Street and South Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard is slated to open in fall 2025.

Two other projects on the horizon are a 500-bed residence hall at the former Gibbs Hall and Paddyfote Complex sites on Wahnish Way and a mixed-use apartment complex with 800 beds at the former Palmetto North site.

The three-part housing initiative will increase FAMU’s current on-campus bed count by 26%, according to the university, which had approximately 9,800 students as of fall 2023. This fall’s student enrollment is expected to be about 9,500.

Johnson, the national alumni association president, supports the university’s staff members for their efforts in tackling the high demand for on-campus student housing.

“I think the university staff should be commended for looking into the issue in the past, making some sound adjustments and trying their very best to provide housing for both freshmen and upperclassmen who desire now to live on campus, which is a growing trend,” Johnson told the Democrat Thursday.

FAMU’s tips for students on standby

The university has asked students assigned to on-campus housing to make any necessary cancellations by Wednesday, July 17, to give students on standby the opportunity to be placed in the on-campus residence halls in their place.

At this time last year, the university’s waitlist was empty as a result of more effective communication efforts with students and parents.

More: FAMU’s student housing waitlist is empty, unlike last year. Here’s how they did it.

While the university stopped putting students on their waitlist in May of last year, the July 17 end date this time around was to give returning students enough time to meet the requirement of registering for fall classes while applying for housing.

Hudson says FAMU students with a standby status are encouraged by the university to look into off-campus housing options on its website at https://offcampushousing.famu.edu/.

The site had information about over 207 available rentals at off-campus apartments near FAMU as of Thursday afternoon.

The university’s Venom Excess shuttles are also available for students to travel to campus, and students are able to ride city transportation for free with their FAMU Rattler ID card.

“We still have a challenge, but I think that the work being done to recognize it, to address it and to put things in place — like building new dorms for additional space — are all things that should be commended by this current administration in their addressment of this issue,” Johnson said.

Contact Tarah Jean at [email protected] or follow her on X: @tarahjean_.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FAMU housing is at capacity ahead of fall with 600 students waitlisted