In order to accommodate a growing student population, juniors and seniors with on-campus housing grants will not be able to live in residence halls like Nagel and Nelson next year. Upperclassmen will instead be living in on-campus apartments, according to Demitrius Brown, executive director of Housing and Residential Education.

“We have the residency requirements for first and second year students, so every DU student has to live on campus for their first and second year,” said Brown. “Next year, when this large class matriculates, it actually matches the number of beds we have in Nelson and Nagel.”

DU will be admitting approximately 1,400 new students in the fall, according to Brown.

“We know that some of those students are going to leave DU at some point for different reasons: medical, transfer, be closer to home,” said Brown. “Essentially that leaves us with the number of beds after students kind of melt away. We have the number of beds we need to meet that.”

The university has acquired University Place Apartments (behind the Ritchie Center) in order to be able to house all upperclassmen with on-campus housing grants. Brown said resources from housing, university and endowment properties are being used toward the acquisition.

“It’s really a financial formula more than it is a cost to the university, moving resources around to make sure we can pull this off,” said Brown.

DU is purchasing new furniture for the apartments to “make the environment nicer,” according to Brown. Apartments will be furnished with couches and dining room tables, among other things.

Brown said upperclassmen are more likely to want to live in an apartment environment.

“I think from an experiential point of view, the third and fourth year students want a little bit more privacy,” said Brown. “They want their own kitchens, they want some things that we have available in the apartments area, that can work for them.”

Shelby Lee, a junior majoring in real estate and construction management, agreed.
“I don’t see why an upperclassman would want to live in the dorms,” said Lee.

Kaley Rickert, a junior majoring in international studies and political science, said she wished the dorms were still available to upperclassmen.

“I don’t like that they aren’t an option for those of us that financially require them,” said Rickert.