Heidi Plato

The addition of Chancellors Hall seems to have lived up to the goal of enticing students to stay on campus -264 more students chose to return to the dorms last week than at this time last year.

Last week, 2,021 students, which does not include next year’s incoming freshmen, signed on-campus housing contracts for next school year, said Chuck Major, housing director.

“That’s the highest that I’ve seen in the past number of years,” said Major, who added that the increase exceeded his goals.

The goal of building Chancellors was to create more living space for students who wanted to remain on campus, he said

The UW System Board of Regents’ policy is that all freshmen and sophomores must live on campus, but, unlike other campuses, Major said UW-Eau Claire never has had to enforce the policy.

This is due to the university’s ability to always work at its regular housing capacity level, which is 3,754 living spaces including Chancellors.

“I’d much rather have it this way; people who want to be here rather than people who don’t want to be here,” Major said.

Freshman Nicollette Grant said she’ll be living on campus again next year because it’s cheaper, there’s more people around and there’s more to things to do.

The higher number of returning on-campus students comes despite housing’s projection of about only 85 openings out of 324 living spaces in Chancellors available for student applicants. Housing based the projection on a survey it performed this school year asking Chancellors residents about their living plans for next fall.

This year, 705 students applied for the projected 85 Chancellor openings, which was fairly close to the 750 who applied for the 324 spaces last year.

Major said he was worried students who were not accepted to Chancellors for next school year would choose to live off campus instead. But he said, after last week’s turnout for housing contracts, that never became a reality.

Applicants are chosen by the amount of points they earned based on the point system United Hall Council created last year. It’s based on the number of credits the applicant has earned, semesters they’ve lived on campus and whether they applied with a foursome.

“It comes down pretty much to seniority,” Major said.

The increase also comes despite an 8.5 percent drop this year in the number of students living on campus first semester compared to second semester. Between the semesters, 323 students stopped living in the residence halls, with 3,459 on-campus students total this semester compared to 3,782 students first semester.

The 10-year average for the amount of students who leave the dorms between semesters is about 7 percent of the on-campus population, Major said. Last year it was 5.4 percent.

Major said the percentage of students who leave in the middle of the school year is due to various reasons including students who graduated, were suspended or quit school.

He said students, otherwise, are not allowed to get out of their two-semester housing contract to move off campus, unless for a rare exception.