Parents and students are outraged after learning the university announced its dormitories are full less than six weeks before the Fall semester starts at Florida A&M University (FAMU).

Now, families are searching high and low to secure affordable off-campus housing for their incoming first-year students.

William E. Hudson, Ph.D., vice president for Student Affairs, said in a statement released by the university that all of the beds are full due to an overwhelming of enrolled and returning students.

“Due to overwhelming interest in attending Florida A&M University, and the desire of new and returning students to reside on campus, we have reached our capacity in housing,” Hudson said.

FAMU has left nearly 600 students on the housing waitlist without a backup residence for students.

“We sincerely apologize to all students who want to live on campus,” FAMU housing director Jennifer Wilder said.

Many universities, along with FAMU, accept more students than it has space for, knowing that some students will decline the offer and enroll elsewhere.

“Think about it like an airline,” Wilder said. “They overbook flights because they know a certain percentage of people are not going to show up. You want to be as close to your projected enrollment, I want to be as close to being 100% full in housing as possible.”

This year, the school did not calculate correctly. Due to a larger FAMU first-year class, transfer students and the high cost of rent, off-campus housing options are more expensive, making students apply for on-campus housing.

One parent, Donyette, feels FAMU should be doing more because of its mismanagement.

“I’m very angry,” she told WCTV. “I’m upset. It’s like they’ve left us out on our own,” Donyette said.

Donyette said she’s angry that FAMU didn’t notify parents sooner and had she known sooner, her daughter would have made a different decision about an institution.

The university has five on-campus housing facilities with 2,450 on-campus beds. All five halls-FAMU Towers, Polkinghorne Villages, Sampson & Young, Palmetto and Phase III, are full.

On-campus housing students will move in on Aug. 15 and classes begin on Aug. 22.

The university says FAMU students can ride the StarMetro buses and shuttles for free to get to campus and off-campus apartment complexes.

FAMU freshmen living off-campus will be provided an exception for parking and permitted to register a vehicle on campus.

 

FAMU’s Office of Housing has provided a link for off-campus housing for students searching: https://offcampushousing.famu.edu/.

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