Students look for housing as spring semester reaches final stretch

Katie Farthing, Staff Writer

VCU students have begun to look for housing for the 2023-2024 school year. 

Dorm prices tend to stay steady over the years, and if they do change it’s for a few reasons, according to Kevin Wade, senior associate director of administrative services with Residential Life and Housing. 

“A lot of it has to do with just changes and expenses and quite frankly inflation changes or costs changes in general,” Wade said. “We look at off-campus rates, we look at rates of other institutions in state, we look at what our expenses are, we look at what projects need to be done.” 

Johnson Hall closing didn’t change prices, but available beds decreased for returning students, according to Wade. 

The closure resulted in students having a more stressful time applying for housing because there were more people and fewer available beds, according to Alamina Sesay, a sophomore computer engineering student. 

Sesay is living in Cary and Belvidere Apartments, but applied for Broad & Belvidere, according to Sesay. 

Upperclassmen housing is decided through a lottery system, and the amount of people that apply changes the odds of obtaining housing, according to Wade. 

Sesay said she was only able to get into Cary and Belvidere because her roommate drew a low room selection number.  

Room selection numbers are randomly generated and determine what date and time students are able to search for a room, according to VCU Housing. 

“When my time slot came, they told me that if I wasn’t able to get a room with her, I would not have housing right now,” Sesay said. “I just feel like they need to do better with having spaces available, especially if they gave us a time slot.”  

VCU Housing sends an email to students who cannot get on-campus housing to let them know, according to Wade. 

“There’s the option to sign up to get on a housing waitlist because we know there’ll be some attrition and create some additional vacancies,” Wade said. “We also have resources available for off-campus housing.”

VCU Housing also offers an off-campus housing fair and workshops for students on its website. 

“If any students that are looking for housing have concerns or questions about off campus, on campus, we’re here to assist and help,” Wade said.   

Wade said Johnson Hall will return as part of VCU housing, along with another West Grace housing, though the timeline is still being worked out. 

Maggie Short, a sophomore psychology student, is currently living in Cary and Belvidere with two other roommates. She previously lived in a single room in Gladding Residence Center, or GRC, according to Short. 

“I feel like both Cary and Belvidere and GRC have serious mold and dust issues,” Short said. “I was violently ill for a month and I feel like some of that had to do with indoor seasonal allergies.” 

Johnson Hall was closed due to “elevated mold spores” last year, according to a previous article from The Commonwealth Times. 

“There’s a protocol in place that if a student has concern over mold or air quality, whatever the situation may be, that the university does various checks and testing,” Wade said. “That’s really the main thing we’re doing. What needs to be done to prevent that from happening?” 

Mekhi Ricks, a freshman finance student, will be living in Cary and Belvidere next year. The housing application process was fairly easy, according to Ricks. 

“I had a leader of my group, basically, and she set everything up,” Ricks said. “All I had to do was fill out the application and go through all those steps.” 

Some students live at home and commute to school to save money, according to Sharese Ogburn, a freshman pre-radiation student. 

Ogburn said commuting has been okay this year but sometimes she feels like she misses out. 

“Sometimes when I have fun, I’m like ‘Oh, I don’t wanna go home,’ and I wish I lived on campus,” Ogburn said. “But other times I’m tired of people, so I’m happy I get to go home.”

Commuting has been a good experience so far, according to Gisselle Pacas, a freshman health services student. 

“The only thing that’s a struggle is the parking,” Pacas said. 

Claire Dilday, a senior environmental studies student, lived in Johnson Hall her freshman year and is currently off-campus. 

“I liked it more than when I went into Rhoads and Brandt, those were the worst ones,” Dilday said. “Living in Johnson on my floor wasn’t bad.” 

Dilday said she hasn’t lived in many places in Richmond, but her rent budget has changed over the years. 

“I get more income now so my budget for rent is a little different,” Dilday said. “It’s not as much of the money that I get, it used to be pretty much everything I had.” 

Jenna Bartalone, a senior environmental studies student, said students need to be careful during the house hunting process. 

“I think that you have to be really careful about where you live,” Bartalone said. “You have to make sure if you do decide to live off campus, to ask the right questions so you don’t get screwed over.”