Currently, 60 Binghamton University freshmen are living in super occupancy housing (SOH) on campus, about a third of the 153 who began the semester this way. In SOH, three students are cramped into dorm rooms meant for two. The University demonstrated a lack of transparency about this issue toward the incoming freshman who would live in these rooms, as well as the general student body. While it is definitely positive that BU is rapidly expanding its student population, SOH illustrates the need for University facilities to keep up with increased demand.

SOH was enacted in response to a drastic increase in student applications and acceptances at BU. After receiving 49,500 undergraduate student applications for fall 2023, a 19 percent increase from the previous year, the University seems to have accepted students beyond its capacity.

Some freshmen in SOH housing reported that they were not aware of their housing arrangement until they got to campus. Parents pay thousands of dollars each year for on-campus housing, so the fact that the University may not have adequately informed students in advance is extremely concerning.

While the University has promised that all students in SOH housing will be reassigned to permanent rooms by October, thanks to the renovation of Old Rafuse, this microhousing crisis calls attention to larger concerns about the University’s ability to accommodate what might be a consistently increasing number of students.

Parking, for example, has long been an issue on BU’s campus that is only bound to get worse if the student body continues to increase in size. Students have long complained about having to drive around for sometimes upward of 20 minutes to find a parking spot, despite increasing prices over the past few years. The Old Rafuse renovation project promises to include an adjacent expanded parking lot, but just a few more parking spaces will likely not significantly mitigate the parking crisis on campus.

Fortunately, the University is working on some projects that might help accommodate our expanding student community. There is a new lecture hall scheduled to open in 2026, which will add more classroom spaces to campus, as well as renovations being done to Science 3, Bartle Library and some sports fields.

While we are excited that BU is increasing in popularity and welcoming a larger, hopefully diverse student population, we hope that the University is properly equipped to house and accommodate these students in every aspect of their college experience.