Living in a dorm with a roommate and two suitemates can be an adjustment, but with six people fighting for one bathroom, getting up before the sunrise to simply take a shower, has become a norm.
Last year, enrollment jumped to its highest level in six years and is continuing to grow. Combined with an international student enrollment that nearly tripled, the demand for on campus housing has significantly increased.
Subarna Basnet is a freshman at Webster from Nepal. He requested to room with a specific friend for his roommate assignment. Instead, he was assigned to a triple with two strangers. Basnet avoids being in his room during the day and changes his daily schedule to accommodate the cramped space.
“I have to wake up earlier than 6 a.m. to take a shower. If I get up at 6 a.m. it’s too late,” Basnet said. “There are already a lot of people in the bathroom.”
Lucas O’Donnell has lived on campus for the past two years. If he didn’t, O’Donnell would have a 45-minute commute to and from class each day. Last year, when he went to sign up for housing, the only option left for him was a dorm room in West Hall. As an audio student, O’Donnell preferred a space that could accommodate late-night music making and a roommate who was okay with the noise.
Because of this, he was put on the waitlist, similar to many students who didn’t get the housing option they preferred. Housing and Residential Life told O’Donnell he would be updated regularly throughout the summer regarding his options. However, he didn’t receive regular updates until late July. It was around that time that he received an email stating that the new apartments at Garden Ave had opened up.
The email was sent on a Friday. Webster wanted his decision by Monday.
O’Donnell sent an email with questions about apartments and didn’t receive a reply until Sunday night, when he was expected to make a decision the next day.
“I care about the university, and I care about being a student here, but I do definitely still have expectations,” O’Donnell said. “I don’t feel like I’m gonna even consider applying for housing again.”
Webster requires all students who live outside a 35-mile radius to live on campus for the first two years of their undergraduate experience.
“We are in such a lucky place at Webster right now, where all these other schools don’t have really high enrollment, and we’ve gone up,” Housing and Residential Life Director Rachael Amick said. “Trying to combat that, while also being landlocked, is sometimes a little bit difficult.”
Webster’s West and Maria Hall have been solely dedicated to freshmen in the past. This year, upperclassmen are living in West Hall and 40 rooms have been changed from doubles into triples, fitting three residents in a room typically used for two.
While living in a triple means a discounted cost, it also means six people must share a single bathroom. With two beds stacked on top of one another, plus an additional one on the other side of the room, it’s a tight fit. Webster’s other housing options include East Hall, Webster Village Apartments and Big Bend Apartments. The options previously included the Glen Park Apartments, however the 10 year lease with the complex ended July 31.
“We have more students than we were expecting,” Amick said. “So over the course of the summer, as we’ve seen that change, we had to kind of pivot and figure out, where can we get more beds? Where can we find some solutions here?”
Part of the solution included an agreement with the owners of the Garden Ave apartments, which meant 16 more beds for student housing.
The Eden Seminary dorms are another housing option. They were not on the list for housing options last year. Instead, Webster placed students there as a communal space. Eden has separate dorms, but a communal bathroom and kitchen.
In order to allow some students time to find off campus housing, Webster has hotel rooms at the SpringHill suites in Brentwood that Webster covers partial cost for. A shuttle runs three times a day to transport students to and from campus.
A similar issue happened at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and they offered students an incentive of 2,000 dollars and 100 meal swipes to back out of their housing contract.
Webster waived cancellation fees until Aug. 1 to “get as many spaces available for the students on the waitlist.” As of last week, 25 students are still on the waitlist for on campus housing.
Share this post
