University of Denver’s class of 2026 has broken its record for the most students in any given year of their operation—good news, right? Maybe not. The over-acceptance of freshmen at DU this year brings to the table a variety of problems for students as a result of administrational failures.
Freshmen’s opportunities on campus have been hindered as a consequence of the administrators’ decision to accept so many students. They knew what resources they had as an institution and should’ve placed more limitations on admission so that they could actually meet the needs of their students. As most decisions made by the University are, this one seems to be financially influenced. The higher the class numbers, the more students pay tuition—among the other fees they seem to keep adding on—the more money for the school.
Freshmen are being placed in sophomore housing, or are not being provided housing that meets their accommodations that had been approved by the administration.
Take Henry Charrlin, a freshman placed in Nagel Hall this year. “The whole move-in process was really stressful, I didn’t really know what I was doing and there was no one else moving into the building [at the time]. I didn’t really see anyone for the first few weeks which was weird and felt a little lonely. Overall it wasn’t very fun, it was stressful, not ideal and I don’t get the same freshman experience as everyone else,” Charrlin said.
Charrlin reflected on why housing issues may have come to be and how this reflects on the administration’s planning before move-in. “It seems like they really don’t have the facilities to house everyone and they didn’t really know what they were doing when they were placing us in our housing.… I think DU accepting so many first-year students was 100% in the interest of the school, not the students.”
Mel Erftmier is another freshman who was impacted by DU’s disorganization in the housing assignment process. He required the accommodations of a single room and after jumping through hoops to get this approved, he was told by DU that they couldn’t make it work. “They basically told me I just had to fly solo unless I wanted to live in a situation that didn’t meet my accommodations,” he said.
Although Erftmier ended up in an apartment off campus that he likes, he expressed disappointment about the big picture of the situation. “A big part of being a college freshman is living in the dorms and I don’t get to experience that which kind of stinks. I don’t get to meet people on my floor and hang out with them, go to their rooms, any of that.”
Another issue was the famed ‘First Ascent’ trip to the Kennedy Mountain Campus, which was promised to freshmen as a part of their 4D experience welcoming them to the University of Denver. Due to poor planning, a large number of freshmen won’t be able to go this quarter or attend at all in their first year on campus.
Many students were very excited about their trips to the Mountain Campus, but when their weekends came around, they found out they weren’t on the list to go. The planning of this excursion was so disorganized that some students didn’t even know when they were supposed to go, and the majority of them were never informed of the signup form that was required to get into their assigned weekend.
Rosie Ayala will not be going on her First Ascent trip this fall. “I was planning to go Oct. 7-9 and I filled out the form but the day we were supposed to leave, we all packed and went to the boarding area to sign in but when we got there our names weren’t on the list.”
The whole process was confusing, and now many students are left disappointed about not getting to go on their trip, even though it really wasn’t their fault. “DU should’ve communicated more with students and with FSEM professors because in my class my professor literally told us she didn’t know what was going on and was asking us for updates,” Ayala said. Isn’t it the school’s job to be clearly communicating with their students and employees?
Ayala also pointed out a harmful aspect of over-acceptance. “For hockey games, I don’t think all students are able to get tickets because there’s not enough seating,” Ayala said. Considering hockey is such a big part of DU’s culture, all students should be able to attend the games if they want to.
The last and most important issue is the inaccessibility of mental health services. Many students’ decisions to go to DU were impacted by the promise of these services, yet their needs are not being met. College is a big adjustment and can be mentally, socially and academically challenging for many freshmen. Mental health support is a necessary resource that should be accessible to anyone who needs or wants it.
First-year student Anna Neumann explained her experience trying to get help coping with her OCD on campus and though she wasn’t directly denied this service, she may as well have been. “As soon as I got here I knew that I wanted to start therapy so I called the health center and automatically their response was that there’s already a waitlist of therapists and that it would be a long time before I could even get in for a consultation… The most convenient thing to do would be going through DU where I have insurance but now I have to outsource and find my own therapist here in Denver which will probably cost me a lot of money.”
“This issue definitely could’ve been prevented by accepting less students and employing more therapists because mental health clearly needs to be prioritized more here. There should be enough resources for anyone who needs and wants therapy to have it right there for them,” Neumann added.
The general sentiment among freshmen seems to be that DU accepted more students this year than they could appropriately accommodate. This disorganization and lack of consideration of students’ needs reflects poorly on the values of the administration. Does DU really care about its students and plan on fulfilling the promises they made to us when we decided to attend?
