The University of Colorado at Boulder's Housing & Dining Services is extending various benefits to freshmen waiting for on-campus housing in an effort to give them some of the same experiences they would have if they lived in a residence hall.
As of today, the number of waitlisted freshmen hoping to live in a campus residence hall totaled 28.
"For all of our waitlisted students, we are giving them free lunch programs for the residence halls, free tutoring in the residence halls and we have a student and staff group assigned to work with this group of students so they will feel more involved in the campus experience during New Student Welcome," said Deb Coffin, executive director of the Housing & Dining Services Department.
For a waitlisted student who does not live in a residence hall one full semester, the value of the meal program would come to $560 for the semester. The meal plan will provide the waitlisted students the opportunity to eat with friends, socialize and build relationships.
"Outreach activities also are planned for waitlisted students, creating special activities for them before and during the first week of classes," she said.
Meanwhile, residence hall rooms are being snapped up by late-applying freshmen as fast as they appear on the cancellation list, according to Coffin.
In addition to returning non-freshmen and transfer students, approximately 5,375 freshmen had been placed in the university's 22 residence halls by the end of last week.
Bed spaces were increased this year by reopening the 207 beds in the College Inn at 17th Street and Arapahoe Avenue. The College Inn has not been used for campus housing since spring 2005.
Also, a few freshmen are being housed temporarily in the Bear Creek Apartments south of the Williams Village complex. Coffin said about 28 freshmen will be in apartments at Bear Creek temporarily until vacancies become available in the residence halls. Vacancies could take another month to materialize.
All of the students currently waitlisted are students who did not apply for housing until June, said Coffin. Freshmen typically apply for housing as early as November for the next academic year, with the bulk of applications arriving in March and April. Freshmen are usually assigned a room by late May or June. Some of the currently waitlisted students first turned in their applications during the last 10 days, Coffin said, which is considered very late, especially in a year with so many freshmen.
This year's freshman class is on track to be one of the largest, if not the largest, in CU-Boulder history. An estimated 5,500 freshmen are expected to show up for classes this fall. The largest freshman class previously numbered 5,571 in fall 2003.
If some freshmen wind up commuting from home this fall -- or in the case of nonresident students living in an apartment -- Housing & Dining Services is committed to doing as much as it can to make those students' experiences match those of students on campus, Coffin said.
"The Division of Student Affairs, Housing & Dining Services and Off-Campus Student Housing are all working together to create a great experience for students who are waitlisted," Coffin said. "We're trying to make the situation as positive as we can for the students."
For more information on CU-Boulder housing go to housing.colorado.edu/ .