The Hill expects a full house

With on-campus Housing room sign-ups starting today, the UCLA
Housing Administration anticipates an increase in the number of
returning residents living on the Hill next year, despite the
closure of Sproul Hall for renovations.

Last year, 4,909 students applied to return to on-campus
Housing.

This year, that number has increased to 6,035, said Frank
Montana, assistant director of on-campus Housing.

Montana said Housing received more room applications this year
for two main reasons.

First, he said there is a larger applicant pool with more
second-year returners than last year. Also, for the first time,
current third-year students have a fourth year of on-campus Housing
guaranteed.

In previous years, the only students who were guaranteed four
years of on-campus Housing were Regents Scholars, Montana said.

With room applications available to all current residents, more
students are expressing interest in continuing their stay on the
Hill.

Some upperclassmen have said they chose to remain in on-campus
Housing due to certain benefits.

“I want to stay on campus because it’s
convenient,” said Daniel Nguyen, a third-year statistics
student living in Canyon Point.

Nguyen said by living on campus, he is closer to his job and
does not have to worry about cooking.

Of the 1,100 additional students who have applied for housing,
500 are first-year students, over 200 are second-year students and
over 300 are third-year students.

Since Sproul Hall is “one of the more popular
buildings” for returning students, Housing administrators are
unsure as to where returners will choose to live on campus, Montana
said.

He said Housing will have a better idea about which dorms will
be in higher demand and how many students will actually be living
on campus once the room sign-up period ends on March 14.

But there is no way to predict where students who would want to
live in Sproul will choose to live next year, Montana said.

Montana said the opening of Rieber Terrace will help to offset
the loss of rooms due to the closure of Sproul. But while Sproul
houses about 900 students, Rieber Terrace only houses about
725.

Some students are disappointed that Sproul Hall will be closed
next year.

Kang Hsu, a third-year mathematics and economics student, said
he wanted to live in Sproul next year because of the location, but
now he’s considering Rieber Hall instead.

Due to the popularity of Rieber Vista when it opened last fall,
Housing expects Rieber Terrace to be in high demand as well.

Since Housing has been offered to more students and more
applications have been received, Housing has not had to worry about
increasing efforts to encourage students to live on the Hill.

“We’re not projecting a shortfall of residents at
all,” Montana said.

In addition to an anticipated increase in returning students on
the Hill, Housing also anticipates an increase in the number of
first-year and transfer students who will live on campus.

“For the sake of projection, we use the same percentage
for first-year and transfer students for next year as we used last
year,” Montana said.

Montana said because Housing officials expect an increase in
first-years and transfer students coming to UCLA next fall, the
number of residents will increase accordingly, though it is
difficult to determine right now.

Since more students have decided to return to Housing and there
are fewer rooms to accommodate everyone, Montana said Housing will
have to increase the number of triples in the dorms.

“Obviously, our demand is quite high,” Montana
said.