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126 Students Forced into Crowded Housing

A total of 126 first year students are living in forced triples and quads in the residential halls as of Sept 8. This includes 30 triples and nine quads throughout Cedar, Laurel, Elmwood, Pinewood, and Mullaney Halls. 

There are currently 1,138 students in the freshman class and 934 of these students are living on campus, according to Raymond Gonzalez, Associate Director of Residential Life and Housing Operations. This is the largest number of first year students to live on campus in the history of The University. 

“We are making every effort to accommodate resident students, especially freshmen,” said Tara Peters, Associate Vice President for University Marketing and Communications. “It is great that so many people are interested in Monmouth University. When you combine that with the number of students who want to stay on campus, we had to make some accommodations.” 

Accommodations such as the forced living arrangements were mandatory to fit the number of requests to live on campus. The forced housing is causing three students to fit in a double or four students to live in a triple. 

“There is an unprecedented demand to live on campus,” said Mary Anne Nagy, Vice President for Student Life and Leadership Engagement. “If a student is accepted and their housing deposit is in by May 1 we guarantee first year student housing. We have to honor what we committed to.”  

According to Peters, all students have been housed and there are no first year students currently living in lounges or in upper classmen dorms. 

“We have been working on this since July. As we have options that open up to us we have been working on trying to pull students out of those locations,” says Gonzalez. There are currently no plans to expand or build new residential halls.  

Students were made aware that they would be living with three or four people when housing assignments went out in July. “I was notified that I would be in a triple when I received my housing information, but I was never told that it would be forced. I was under the impression that there would be enough living space for three people to live comfortably,” said Samantha Albinson, a freshman nursing major currently living in a forced triple in Mullaney Hall.

Kelly Fitzpatrick, a freshman nursing major who is living with Albinson agreed that the space is insufficient to house three people. “I was never notified that I would be in a forced triple. I was notified that I would be in a triple when I got my housing information however, I was under the impression that we would be placed in a room made for three people,” she said. 

The students described how they have worked together to create a comfortable living envirnoment. “I am comfortable with my living situation because my roommates are really great and we all get along very well. We have to compromise a lot and share all of our things with each other due to the fact that we dont have enough space,” explained Fitzpatrick. 

Residential Life has been working to ensure that students are comfortable with their living situation.