Although GW leased residence halls City Hall and Pennsylvania House last year to accommodate an influx of about 450 freshmen on campus and the University continues to build more housing, about 130 residence hall beds are currently empty.
Officials said that the number of empty beds reflects students who initially request housing but leave before the semester ends and that, at any time, zero to 130 beds are vacant out of the 6,200 available slots on campus.
On average, about 98 percent of the beds on campus are filled.
“Vacancies on campus, like any property, occur on a cyclical basis … student demand for housing crests in August and January,” said housing director Andy Sonn. “In general, we begin the academic year (at) over a hundred percent occupancy – we had 40 or so students assigned to temporary housing in the Doubletree – and the occupancy percentage declines from there.”
Sonn said reasons for vacancies include students transferring, taking leaves of absence, withdrawing from the University, studying abroad and getting sanctioned to move out for behavioral reasons.
“Over the course of the semester, we typically have an average of five to six withdrawals from housing per week,” Sonn said. “Unfortunately, we can’t predict which beds will be vacant, and we don’t want to place a lot of students in overflow housing while we wait for rooms to empty.”
Housing prices currently range from $6,610 a year for a six-person room in Thurston Hall to $8,770 for a single in the 1957 E St. building. With almost 70 housing options, the average price for a room is about $7,593.
The University earns about $987,000 for 130 beds in an academic year.
However, housing lease agreements are “binding” for the academic year, meaning if students move out of their rooms they must pay the full amount, even if they withdraw from housing before the school year begins.
The only exceptions to the rule are students graduating, withdrawing, transferring, studying abroad or taking leaves of absence.
“Of course, it would be better financially to have the halls at 100 percent,” Sonn said. “Our goal is to have as high occupancy as possible. Sometimes there are factors that make it difficult to attain 100 percent occupancy.”
With weekly housing withdrawals, the University fills the empty spaces with students from the waiting list.
But Sonn said that after mid-semester the number of students requesting housing declines, making it difficult to fill the vacancies.
When demand again increases in the spring, the rooms are filled with transfers, returning study abroad students and those on the waiting list, but some rooms remain empty from September to spring.
Sonn also said adjustments for filling rooms take time because students need to be placed in appropriate residence halls.
“For instance, we don’t want to place a senior in Thurston and we don’t want to place a freshman in City Hall or New Hall,” Sonn said.
A female freshman, who wished to remain anonymous, said she moved out of her Mount Vernon double two weeks ago and currently lives in another double alone.
“I might have to scare people away so I can keep the room all to myself,” she said.
Because students studying abroad have not told the housing office of their plans yet and some incoming transfer students have yet to submit their housing applications, Sonn said he cannot predict how many beds will be vacant in the spring.
