PREMIUM ON HOUSING: SOUTHEAST STUDENTS DISGRUNTLED OVER LIVING ARRANGEMENTS

Southeast Missouri State University student Linda Herron walked out of the school's Residence Life office Thursday in tears, angered and frustrated over campus housing arrangements for the next school year that have left her and other students scrambling for rooms.

School officials said late Thursday they may have to cut off enrollment of non-commuter freshmen because of housing shortages. They said they won't overcrowd residence halls by putting extra students in rooms or turning dorm lobbies and closets into student rooms.

Loren Rullman, director of student auxiliary services, said the university had to make the changes. The four high-rise Towers residence halls are filled for next year, with most of the rooms reserved for freshmen.

"When we had more beds than we had students, we could run it anyway we wanted to," he said.

Herron, a sophomore from Kansas City, Mo., lives in Towers East. She and her roommate ended up with different rooms in Towers West in a marathon housing sign-up session in the Towers complex this week. Herron currently is scheduled to share a room with two other students, total strangers, in Towers West.

Room and board could cost her more than $5,000 next year. The exact charges aren't known because the university hasn't yet set fees. Students are charged on the basis of how many meals they eat on campus and where they reside.

Herron has since decided she could live more cheaply off campus. But to do so, she'll have to break her housing contract. She said that could cost her $200 or more, which she doesn't want to pay.

"You have screwed me over," she told Gwen Duncan, an assistant director of Residence Life during a morning meeting in Duncan's office. The meeting ended when Duncan, who said she understood Herron's frustration, walked out of her office, abruptly ending the conversation.

A question of priorities

Other students living on campus share Herron's sentiments. They believe they should be given first priority for housing over new students -- freshmen, transfer students and international students who will be moving into university housing this fall.

In past years, the university gave priority to returning students. But with a growing enrollment of freshmen for the coming school year, Southeast is faced with a housing crunch. The number of students living on campus rose from 1,750 in fall 1994 to 2,323 last fall. Southeast can house 2,495 students on campus.

The university wants to build a new residence hall on Henderson Avenue starting later this year. The new building would house 300 students, but it wouldn't be ready until fall 2002.

Jim Settle, director of the university's Residence Life office, said upper classmen likely will be given the first chance to live in the new residence hall once it opens.

For now, there's no escaping the housing crunch.

The university has reserved 1,200 beds, or about half of the available housing, for new students for the 2001-2002 school year. The result is that only some juniors, fewer seniors, and very few graduate students will be able to live on campus in the coming academic year, campus housing officials and students say.

Housing officials say their first priority is to find room for freshmen and sophomores. The university requires all freshmen and most sophomores living away from home to stay on campus. Juniors, seniors and graduate students can live off campus and many do.

"We know students at the freshman and sophomore level need a structured environment to succeed," said Rullman.

Lottery system used

Southeast used a lottery system this week for campus residents that allowed freshmen, who will be sophomores next fall, to sign up for housing in advance of other students currently living in student housing.

Sophomore John Warren said the housing crunch forced him to sign up Wednesday night to live in Dearmont again next school year or lose his room-and-board scholarship. He wanted to live in a more modern residence hall.

"I had to sign a contract that night or I would be paying for an apartment myself," he said.

Warren said the university earlier had sent him a letter suggesting he should live off campus next school year. But Warren said apartments are hard to find near campus.

Many students, he said, are upset over the housing situation and are talking about transferring to other schools rather than returning to Southeast.

There are 38 beds still available in campus residence halls, including 10 on the first floor of a Group Housing dorm that houses a sorority.

Students are unhappy because they can't get into the residence hall they desire, Rullman said. "No students living here now have been denied space on campus," he said.