Existing Ole Miss students make room for upcoming freshmen class

Campus Creek Apartments fill up fast, but are the closest to campus

The residence halls at Ole Miss will be getting a fresh makeover next semester, in that they will be almost exclusively inhabited by freshmen. The incoming freshman class is so large that the Department of Student Housing is making some major changes to who can live in on campus next year. Every room assigned next year will have freshman priority, so that means options for non-freshman students wishing to live on campus will be limited.

The housing department has been swamped these last few weeks with droves of incoming and potential freshmen ( some as young as early high-school) wishing to tour residence halls. Kells Johnson, a marketing assistant for the Department of Housing, took a break from a day of tours to explain what this large group of freshmen means for the Housing department as well as current non-freshmen.

There are plenty of off campus locations around Oxford for students to live, however few of them are what a walking student would consider close. Campus Creek apartments is by far the closest to the main campus and is already a popular spot for students wishing to have a shorter commute, however space is limited and rooms go fast. Rooms next semester will book up even faster with large groups of newly apartment-shopping greek students.

In the past it has been the policy of many sororities to place their newly inducted sisters into a single residence hall due to the limited space in the sorority houses, however the new housing policies do not provide the sorority “communities” that they once did in Crosby hall. With Crosby now primarily housing freshmen these sophomore students will have to find living accommodations elsewhere. Kells Johnson approached the subject by stating that, “The Crosby sorority floor isn’t necessarily reserved for sorority girls and next year will be more difficult for them. Typically sorority girls will just move into their houses for easier access to classes and avoiding commuter parking, but whose to say what they will do now.”  The housing department is, however, making the right steps to ease students into the transition to off campus living by providing all the necessary information about apartment availability as well as other community resources.

The massive number of incoming students was unprecedented, and with Ole Miss hopefuls as young as high-school freshmen coming in to tour campus dorms and begin planning, enrollment doesn’t appear to be slowing down any time soon