Letter to the Editor

In response to the recent articles in The Miami Hurricane, I would like to present the student body with a different perspective on the housing crisis that has erupted.
Students should not be scared to live on campus. Long lines and the high demand for housing should not turn us off, and rather than a hap-hazard approach that we may perceive from the Residence Halls Office (RHO) during this year’s sign-up, I would like to present a series of events that has lead to the housing crisis we now face.
First, the Convocation Center was built. Like any world-class university, we now have a facility on campus that hosts sporting events and commencement. We lost hundreds of beds from the apartments that were destroyed.
Second, the incoming freshmen enrollment will be higher than ever next year. Students want to be part of the University of Miami. The administration has mandated that all of these freshmen will live on campus. We can almost all agree this is an essential part of the underclassman experience. Limited space is left for upperclassmen to retain their housing on campus.
Third, students want to remain living on campus. This demand is a wonderful! Evidently, life on campus is enjoyable and convenient and people want to stay. Until we have more housing on campus, it will be crunch time for housing at this time every year. Resistance to University Village, as we all know, does not come from RHO or the university administration, but from city officials and residents of Coral Gables.
The other option is a lottery system for upperclassman housing. Do we, as students, see this as a viable option? Currently, the administration does not. The process of housing sign-up will be evaluated and improved upon each year. But what we should really ask our student government to do is convey our
feelings on an option such as the lottery system. How can we make lemonade from this lemon of a challenge? Behind this crisis hides a fact we cannot deny – the University of Miami is becoming the world.
Jenn Deakins,Sophomore, International Studies