Despite reduced occupancy numbers this semester some students at Fort Lewis College are finding themselves living in triple rooms.
The biggest reason for this is Bader A and Bader C, which hold about 80 spaces for students, being offline for the 2016-17 academic year for renovations, Julie Love, senior student affairs director, said.
In total FLC’s occupancy percentage is down by 3.5 percent, Love said.
The drop in occupancy represents a disparity from the number of admission application FLC received for 2016-17.
This year there was actually a record number of applicants for the freshman class, around 8,000, Andy Burns, director of admissions, said. In 2015-16 there were 4,700 applicants.
“We were seeing pretty big increases compared to the previous year, for both first-year students and transfer students,” Love said.
In April, based on the application numbers, the housing department started anticipating what would be the best course of action if the occupancy numbers grew beyond where they were last year, she said.
The housing department went through different scenarios of occupancy for an increase of 3 percent, 5 percent, or 8 percent, coming up with different solutions for each scenario, she said.
The housing department decided to implement a plan to add about 30 spaces to make up for the 80 spaces offline at the Bader complexes, she said.
To implement these spaces, triple rooms were provided, she said.
As part of this move to triple spaces, the housing department began to look at what other institutions have done when adding triple rooms and what their options were on campus, Love said.
Part of the process was meeting with employees from the housing department who had an idea of what the facilities consist of and which rooms could accommodate a third set of furnishings, she said.
Some other factors were bathroom facilities and the expenses that the department incurs because an extra occupant is living there using hot water and electricity, she said.
The financial incentive to students was also a consideration, so students living in triples were offered a discount to the room and board of $600 per semester, Love said.
The Housing department wanted the discount to be significant enough that it would be appealing to the student, she said. They wanted students to feel good about committing to a triple occupancy.
While some students were told that FLC only had triples left to offer because all other types of rooms on campus were unavailable, many chose to occupy a triple in the fall of 2016, she said.
Now that Housing has a clearer image of the occupancy situation, they are following up with students in triples, Love said.
“Every year, we have a handful of students that are no shows, people that have a housing assignment, who for whatever reason have decided not to come and so get a little bit of movement with spaces because of that,” Love said.
Some of the students in triples would prefer to be transferred to a double person room, she said. These students will get priority if they choose to move to a different room.