Students have been scrambling recently to find housing in Seton Hall’s residence halls because of an increase in students looking to live on campus.
SHU has over 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students but is only home to approximately 2,400 students.
“To be eligible for on-campus housing a student must be registered for classes for the following fall semester, submit their housing deposit, and submit their housing application by the advertised deadline,” said Kendra Sherman, the assistant director of Housing and Residence Life.
Each year, there is a housing lottery for upperclassmen. In this process, students are randomly given a time and a day during the room selection period where they can access the housing portal and choose their residence hall and room number.
After students complete all the necessary steps, they can create roommate groups containing four or five students to then participate in the housing lottery.
However, this year saw an unprecedented surge in students wanting to live on campus.
“Typically, we see a reduction in students who want to live in campus housing around July,” Sherman said. “This year, we did not experience the same number of housing cancellations we expect each summer.”
During the past few years, triple rooms were being used to house two students and double rooms were being used to house one student in the Complex. The Complex consists of Cabrini, Neumann, and Serra Halls. To accommodate the large number of students who applied for on-campus housing, these rooms housed the intended number of students this academic year.
Aside from on-campus residence halls, SHU offers residence options at Ora Manor and Turrell Manor, which are both off-campus apartment buildings set aside for upperclassmen to live in. Ora Manor can hold 103 upperclassmen and Turrell Manor can hold 83.
The Department of Housing and Residence Life also created a new chicklet on Engage this year to assist upperclassmen in finding off-campus housing. They joined forces with Off Campus Partners as another resource for students to utilize.
“Through the Off Campus Partners portal, students are able to create an account with their SHU email to view local rental listings,” the Department of Housing and Residence Life said.
This website allows SHU students to discover rental listings in the South Orange, Nutley, and Newark areas that are not affiliated with the university.
Upperclassmen students also have the option to find their own off-campus housing in the South Orange area.
Arianna Valte, a sophomore biology major, lives with eight other girls “doors away” from campus.
“I like the luxury of being able to remove myself from my schoolwork,” Valte said. “When I lived on campus, it was difficult to pull myself away from schoolwork and take time for myself.”
Valte also expressed that living off campus is “significantly cheaper” than living in an on-campus residence hall. With access to a kitchen and a car, she said she enjoys living in a home off-campus more than in the dorms.
“With all the benefits of living off-campus, I like it better,” Valte said. “But I would be lying if I said I didn’t miss the community of living in the dorms.”
Vanessa Demonte, a sophomore nursing student, said she chose to live on campus for a second year.
“I really like the community of living in a dorm,” Demonte said. “And I love the opportunity to always meet new people and see a friendly face.”
Demonte said she had the first time slot in her roommate group and easily went through the housing lottery process. She also said she was able to secure a spot in Xavier Hall.
“I was lucky I got the first time slot,” Demonte said.
While Xavier is home to approximately 520 upperclassmen, the rest of the upperclassmen who want to live on campus reside in the Complex, which holds about 550 students.
Brooke Merrifield, a sophomore psychology and speech-language pathology student, lives on the third floor of Serra Hall, located in the Complex.
Unlike Demonte, Merrifield said she was not so lucky in the housing lottery.
“The housing lottery did not give us the building we wanted,” Merrifield said. “Serra was toward the bottom of our list.”
Both Serra and Neumann halls do not have elevators.
“Move-in was a challenge,” Merrifield said. “But we recruited friends to help us which made the process a little easier.”
Because of issues like this, there is a waitlist for upperclassmen to transfer into Xavier Hall.
Like Merrifield, sophomore occupational therapy student Sophia Hinz did not get her first choice in the housing lottery.
Hinz said she and her suitemates found there to be a lack of strong communication between residence life and students when going through the process.
“I found that the deadlines to apply were not very clear, causing my roommates and I to submit our application later than others,” Hinz said.
Due to this mishap, Hinz ended up getting placed in Cabrini Hall, which was not her top choice. Her suite was also given a later date and time slot to choose their room, leaving minimal options.
“It was upsetting that everyone’s housing depended on the number and time slot that was selected for you,” Hinz said. “This gave some students a better chance of staying together in the building they want just because of a number placement.”
Hinz added that she wished there was more information given throughout the year to help better prepare students going through such an “important part” of residential life.
Associate Dean of Students Nicole Giglia disagrees that students are not properly informed about the housing selection process.
“Starting in early spring, we inform students through multiple channels including email communications, website updates on www.shu.edu, news stories, university calendar listings, social media posts, flyers, tabling events, and formal information sessions,” Giglia said.
Giglia said she believes that students are given numerous opportunities to learn and ask questions about the housing lottery so that they are prepared for when the day comes.
“Students receive clear instructions about the three key eligibility steps: registering for classes, submitting a housing deposit, and completing a housing application,” Giglia said.
All students must complete all the requirements on time to obtain on-campus housing.
Housing is only guaranteed for the first 1,050 first-year/transfer students who pay their deposit by May 1, so finding a “Home at the Hall” may look different for many residential students.
Megan Brush is a writer for The Setonian’s News section. She can be reached at megan.brush@student.shu.edu.
