The University of Illinois is asking elder classmen to move out of student housing to accommodate incoming first-year students.
The university is facing an issue they did not anticipate for the 24-25 fall semester: a shortage of student housing. For this reason, the university is offering food vouchers and a cash stipend to incentivize juniors and seniors to voluntarily forfeit their on-campus housing, according to
CBS News.CBS reports, “The university is offering returning students who are not required to live on campus a $2,000 incentive and meal tickets to cancel their housing contract.”
Many universities require incoming freshmen to live on campus during their first year. The University of Illinois’ student code lists out the definition of a freshman that must acquire student housing:
- Degree-seeking students who:
- apply for admission while attending high school, regardless of the amount of college credit earned, including advanced placement or similar programs;
- are enrolled in the fall term and attended college for the first time in the prior summer term or
- since graduating from high school, have not attended another postsecondary institution as a degree-seeking undergraduate student.
The Chicago-based university isn’t the only one going through a housing crisis. In Lafayette, Louisiana, residents of Woodsprings Suites, an extended-stay motel, are being evicted to accommodate students as an adequate number of campus housing units is unavailable.
HBCU Howard University made national news in 2021 for its housing issues. Students staged a sit-in at the school’s Blackburn University Center beginning Oct. 12. Partnering with the education reform group Live Moment, students protested the presence of mold and crumbling infrastructure in the 100-year-old institution’s housing units. After more than a month, students and the administration reached an agreement, ending the protest.
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