With the growing number of students, housing on campus has become less accessible more than ever before.
Montclair State University’s solution? Moving students to Bloomfield College.
On Sept. 29, 2023, Montclair State published an article stating that students waitlisted for dorming will find a new home at Bloomfield College.
Montclair State said, “More than 50 Montclair State University residential students are living on the Bloomfield College of Montclair State University campus this fall. The majority moved into Bloomfield’s Schweitzer Hall on Sept. 15, 2023, following a greater-than-usual student residential housing waitlist at Montclair [State].”
They continued with, “Serving as one of the merger’s first – and more visible – campus integration initiatives, the idea came about after Montclair [State] reached its Fall 2023 housing capacity of 5,069. All signs point to the number of Montclair [State] students being housed on the Bloomfield campus continuing to grow.”
They also stated that the waitlist for housing nearly tripled this year. But should that be considered a feat or a problem?
While it seems like a good thing they are making room for students who need housing, it poses some major problems as well as not being the perfect solution for students in need of housing.
Dawn Soufleris, the vice president for Student Development and Campus Life at Montclair State stated, “Our student housing waitlist nearly tripled this year…We had a high returner retention rate and very low no-show numbers, which together reflect the growing number of students who want to attend the University and have a residential experience.”
Montclair State has a problem with the amount of students they are admitting into the school. They believe it is an impressive feat, but all it does is cause problems. Having your waitlist triple is a problem, not a bragging point.
Students need housing to be able to attend school. What if out-of-state students can not get housing and are no longer able to attend?
Also, not every student has a car to transport them from the Bloomfield campus to Montclair State’s campus.
Luckily, Montclair State offers a solution by offering free rides on a shuttle from and to Bloomfield College.
However, if you are a student a Montclair State who takes the shuttles, you probably know they are not reliable. Students constantly complain about the shuttles making them late for class due to traffic and not showing up on time. Now, imagine a shuttle traveling from 15 minutes away and dealing with outside traffic and on-campus traffic.
There might also not be enough seats for all the students who need to go back and forth between campuses and this could cause major problems.
Even if they do have cars, they are still commuting to campus at this point. The whole point of dorming is to live on campus where you can walk from your bedroom to class in about five minutes.
Soufleris also stated, “We have received very positive feedback from both the students and their families. From the exceedingly warm welcome they received on move-in day, to their comments regarding the beauty of the campus, everyone seems very happy… We expect interest from Montclair [State] students in living on the Bloomfield campus to continue to grow. We are already receiving new inquiries from students who are hearing from their peers about the great experience they are having living on the Bloomfield campus. This is a win-win all around.”
It is great to hear students are enjoying their time at Bloomfield, but it still is a reminder that this school has too many students and is failing to accommodate many of them.
Maybe if the administration stopped letting in so many students, we would not need to resort to Bloomfield College to house students.
