“Being a senior, being here the first three years then saying you can’t live here–there was a big uproar,” UConn senior Isaiah Harvey said.
This week, backlash among UConn students and families prompted a backpedal from the university, reversing their latest housing proposal just hours after its announcement.
“I was very relieved. A lot of my RA staff was talking about how it would have put them in a bad spot if that were to go through,” Harvey said.
On Wednesday afternoon, UConn announced a new policy, part of which said on-campus housing would only be guaranteed to undergraduates for six semesters starting in the 2024-25 academic year.
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The policy would have required many seniors to find off-campus solutions.
“Not everyone has a car, not everyone has the money to pay because a lot of people have scholarships that cover on-campus housing, a lot of people have student loans that only cover on-campus housing,” sophomore Natania Muriel said.
It’s those kinds of concerns that ultimately led to a reversal from the university within hours of the announcement.
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In the follow-up letter sent to students on Wednesday night, UConn said they, “worked intensively to identify a number of solutions” to ensure seniors would have on-campus housing.
“I just hope that whatever they do have planned, they just stay consistent with it,” Harvey said.
The reversal brings relief, but also questions as to what those solutions may look like going forward.
“I don’t know how they’re suddenly able to create all this extra housing so they can guarantee it,” junior Michael Filippelli said.
“If they keep changing their mind back and forth, it’s going to put a lot of students in a bad place for next year,” Harvey said.
In the letter, UConn did not provide details on what those solutions would look like, but said they would provide additional updates in the coming weeks.
