Three consecutive years of record-breaking freshman enrollment has prompted the University of Mississippi to expand its housing offerings, creating uncertainty for students as they sit on housing waitlists and struggle to find off-campus housing.
When Vice Chancellor and Director of Student Housing John Yaun came to the university in 2019, there was a strategic plan for student housing.
“Because of all these changes, a lot of that strategic plan is almost outdated or not applicable,” Yaun said earlier this month. “At the time, we had about 3,200 freshmen housing, and I believe now we have at least 6,000 freshmen signed up for housing.”
UM has 22 on- and off-campus residence halls with a total of 6,841 beds. The on-campus residence halls and Campus Walk have 5,687 beds. The other 1,154 beds are spread across five off-campus apartment complexes that have master leases with the university.
Currently, all beds are occupied and many freshmen and senior students spent the summer on waiting lists for university accommodation.
At the beginning of July, the waiting list for freshmen was about 140 women and 70-80 men, Yaun said. Freshmen are required by the university to live in student dormitories. On August 9, the waiting list was 30 women and 10 men, but on August 21, it was down to one woman and two men. The waiting list for sophomores and seniors was 120 people on August 9.
Once the university receives rejections, students are contacted and placed in open spots in the order they were placed on the waitlist. Although the university plans to accommodate all freshmen, Yaun said it is unlikely that the university will be able to find spots for all senior students on the waitlist.
“In the event that we don’t get rejections, we’ve told (freshmen) that we may not have a bed for them (and) they have some options. They can either stay on the waitlist or request a waiver to be exempt from the requirement to live on campus,” Yaun said. “Some have done that. Some have chosen to stay on the waitlist, but we’ve given them the option and let them know that we may not have a bed available.”
As of August 9, about 180 freshmen had opted for an exemption from the dormitory requirement, Yaun said.
For many first-year students, being on the waitlist for such a long time is stressful. Jonlya Garrett, a freshman biology major, spent several weeks on the waitlist before getting a spot in July.
“I was on the waiting list for weeks, worrying about whether I would even get a scholarship. I was so stressed because my scholarships require me to live in Ole Miss housing,” said Garrett, a Grove scholar. “If I hadn’t gotten a room, I don’t know how I would have been able to live.”
Garrett said she did not expect to encounter such difficulties.
“When I came to this school, I didn’t know it would be so stressful to find a dorm room. I have friends and family who have been here and had no problems with housing and finding a dorm room,” Garrett said.
The housing authority encourages senior students to start looking for non-student housing early, Yaun said.
“We’ve been telling (senior students) every month that nothing is available and they should think about an option to live off campus,” Yaun said. “I know that off-campus housing has become more expensive, and that’s a problem.”
Destiny Kirksey, a third-year biology student, decided not to be placed on the senior waiting list.
“When the windows opened for senior dorms, there was no other housing available,” Kirksey said. “Honestly, I thought there was no point in getting put on the waitlist when I could just find another place to live.”
However, finding an apartment was not easy for her.
“Most of the apartments were booked and taken. It took me three months to find an apartment that fit my budget. And even then, it wasn’t furnished and I still have to pay for the furniture,” Kirksey said. “It took a while. I’m still finalizing some things, but at least I’ll have a place to live in the fall.”
Anna Buckley, a third-year public health and health science major who rents a house, described finding non-student housing as stressful.
“I had a lot of different feelings, but one thing was always stress. During the spring semester, it was very difficult to balance the housing search with my class load, student organizations and other obligations,” Buckley said. “Trying to focus on the reason I’m here at the university – to get my education – was pushed to the back burner, which should never be the case.”
While Kirksey and Buckley have found accommodation, there are still senior students looking for accommodation. Social networks like Facebook are full of groups of students and parents looking for non-student accommodation in Oxford.
A group called Oxford Mississippi (US) Off Campus Student Housing/Rentals/Rooms For Rent has more than 6,000 members. Since August 22, four days before the start of the fall semester, students can still posted looking for an apartment.
Although the university does not have an office dedicated to helping students find non-student housing, Yaun said his department is just beginning to talk about the resources it can provide in the coming year and can have one-on-one meetings with students.
“Ideally, in the future, we would like to be able to offer enough beds for senior students so that we can provide them with an affordable housing option,” Yaun said, noting that one of the three dormitories being built on the site of the old Kincannon Hall will go to senior students.
Construction of these dormitories is scheduled to be completed by summer 2026.
In addition to the difficulties of finding housing, students and parents have also raised concerns about off-campus rentals. Billi Hart, the mother of a freshman, spoke about why she wanted her son to stay on campus.
“I want him to have the dorm experience,” Hart said. “For me, being off campus your freshman year is a little bit of a disadvantage because you miss out on so many things that are available to you.”
Yaun assured students and parents who had such concerns that the university had worked to ensure that off-campus students were integrated into the campus community.
“A lot of parents are not comfortable with their students living in a master lease off campus, and I understand that because they want them to be part of the campus experience, but our goal is to create the exact same experience that we have on campus,” Yaun said. “We’ll have residence assistants there, we’ll have programs there, we’ll have security there. Anything that someone gets in Martin or Stockard (on campus), they’ll get in one of the (off-campus) properties.”
In recent years, many students have suggested that the university should accept fewer students in order to ease some of the pressure on accommodation.
“I always welcome the opportunity to meet more people and believe that everyone should have a chance (at higher education). However, right now the university is not prepared to handle this influx,” Buckley said. “It definitely affects my opinion of the university because it makes me feel like I’m just a number to the school while they try to increase the number of students here every year.”
However, Mississippi universities nationwide open admissions The policy states that no upper limit can be set on the number of domestic students admitted to UM.
According to a February 2024 interview the Daily Mississippian conducted with UM’s admissions director Jody Lowe, there is a clause in the policy that allows the university to limit the number of out-of-state students admitted.
“Every year we review our admissions criteria for out-of-state students. This year we have not yet begun that process,” said Jacob Batte, UM’s director of news and media relations.
Yaun said his department is committed to keeping students informed about the housing process and is working on initiatives with the Associated Student Body’s Housing Committee. While many wonder if the requirement to live on campus will be eliminated, Yaun said the university has not discussed that option.
Wesley Templet, chair of ASB’s housing committee and a junior public policy major, said those initiatives include reinstating dorm councils, ensuring maintenance issues are addressed and working with city government to discuss affordable housing options.
In the meantime, he encouraged students to think about their accommodation for the 2025-2026 academic year and to contact ASB, the University and LOU HOME – a local affordable housing nonprofit – for support.
“In some places, there are waiting lists for these apartments as early as October,” Templet said. “You can always contact LOU-HOME or the ASB Housing Committee and we can try to help you find a place. We have an Ole Miss off-campus housing website through apartments.com (that’s a university partnership).”
Tanissa Ringo and Jordan Isbell contributed reporting.
