Joyner Opens to Alleviate Tight Housing

Due to a spike in freshman enrollment and a greater number of on-campus students renewing their housing contracts, the demand for on-campus housing considerably exceeded the roughly 6,500 available spaces.

But Christopher Payne, director of housing and residential education, said he did not want to alleviate the problem by using lounges to house students waiting for their permanent assignments.

Last year, about 80 students moved into lounges around campus before being reassigned to permanent rooms.

"It's not a good experience for those students living in lounges, and it's not a good experience for those campus communities that can't use their lounges," Payne said.

And while some lounges have been converted to regular student rooms, the Department of Housing and Residential Education mostly looked to Joyner Residence Hall, which was scheduled to close this fall for renovations.

The housing department had already started painting the residence hall this summer, but officials decided to push back the closing date to January and fill Joyner's 170 beds with freshmen who submitted their housing applications late.

Payne said Joyner will function like any other co-ed campus community, but as spaces open in other residence halls, students will be placed in permanent assignments.

"They can move in and settle in," Payne said. "We'll give them a couple days and help them transport their belongings when they get their reassignment."

And while there is usually a large number of housing contract cancellations at the beginning of the semester, Payne said he doubts there will be enough in the next few weeks to place all the students living in Joyner into permanent rooms.

"We'll end up with a number of students who will remain in Joyner for a long part of the semester," he said.

But many of the freshmen placed in Joyner said they would almost prefer to stay in their present location.

"I like it here because it's a lot closer than a lot of freshmen's rooms," said Angie White, a freshman from Wilmington. "And I have air conditioning. I wish I could stay here all semester."

While the housing department made finding a bed for each freshman a top priority, the increased demand for on-campus housing forced the department to turn other students away.

"We sent a note to transfer students, graduate students, readmitted students and students moving from off-campus that said we wouldn't be able to accommodate them on on-campus housing so we could reserve spaces for first-year students," Payne said.

He said the housing department added off-campus housing information to its Web site, made sure the staff could share news about alternative housing options and worked with Granville Towers to find housing for students.

Dennis Erny, general manager of Granville Towers, said there also was an increased demand for that complex's 1,410 beds, especially from transfer students.

"Demand was up this year, about 50 to 100 students," Erny said. "We had to turn some away."

The housing department's effort to meet every freshman's demand for on-campus housing also placed more freshmen on North and Mid Campus.

"Every year at recontracting we reserve spaces on Middle and North Campus for students new to campus -- first-year students and transfer students," Payne said.

But since transfer students were encouraged to find off-campus housing options, those reserved spaces were mostly filled by freshmen.

Housing department officials also encouraged students to find other housing options by waiving the penalty increase for canceling campus housing contracts. There is a $200 cancellation fee, but the housing department did not increase this amount by $750 after July 1 as it normally does.

But Payne said he hopes the housing department's efforts to encourage students to find off-campus housing did not send the wrong message.

"We want students to live in campus housing because we don't want to say we don't want you."

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.