There are over 12,000 thousand students that attend FAMU and out of this number only three thousand students live in campus housing. The other nine thousand plus students don’t live on campus not because they do not want to, but because they cannot. FAMU only has 2,973 spaces available for students.
“I would appreciate if they built another dorm,” said Justin Williams, 18, a freshmen psychology student from Aiken, S.C.
Each dorm and apartment has a limited amount of space for students and with the large amount of freshmen coming each year, students’ hope that more housing will be built to accommodate those who aren’t able to live off campus.
However, before the actual building of a dorm can take place it is about a four to five year process just to get the building site and dormitory or apartment approved.
Moore said that it is mostly paperwork and getting the legislator to approve the plans, but that plans to build another dorm and apartment are in effect.
Samuel J. Houston, Director of Facilities, Planning and Construction, said that they are in the process of getting a Phase VI approved now, but that it would take at least 19 months before they could actually get the building started.
Students seeking housing for the fall semester of 2002 should have applied during September 2001.
Jerry Moore said that housing students is a “first come, first serve” basis and that scholarship students did not get a special pick on campus housing and that just because they were scholarship students they did not get picked before other students in the race to get on campus housing.
Students seeking housing for the fall semester of 2002 should have applied during the September 2001.
Yet, many students that did apply say that even though they applied on the first day, they still did not receive housing and are on the waiting list. Courtney Harris, 18, a freshmen physical therapy major from, city, South Carolina said, “I applied the first day [they started to accept applications] and I still ended up on the waiting list.” Harris went on to say that she knew of a few people that applied a few weeks later and got housing before she did. One of those people was Allison Groomes, 18, a freshmen business major from city, Alabama. Groomes applied for housing early October and got an apartment in Phase III. Groomes also stated that she was a Distinguished Scholar student and that scholarship students had a special stamp.
Jerry Moore said that housing students is a “first come, first serve” basis and that scholarship students did not get a special pick at on campus housing and that just because they were scholarship students they didn’t get picked before other students in the race to get on campus housing.
Kimberly Reese, 18, a freshmen business student from New Orleans also a Presidential Scholar applied the second week of September and received housing in Palmetto Phase III. Another student who wished to remain anonymous applied October 25 and also received housing in Palmetto Phase III.
Some students had concerns that housing was booting out upperclassmen to make room for the freshmen, but Moore said that they aren’t running out upperclassmen and that, “We try to give freshmen the traditional dorms and whatever is left over we give to the upperclassmen.”
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