Nobody moved in alone Wednesday morning at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, with dozens of volunteers on hand to assist incoming students and their families at one student parking lot on the north end of campus.
“It helps to be early,” said Christina Gross, who drove from Springdale with her daughter, Rachel, an incoming freshman. She described how student volunteers quickly unloaded a packed sport utility vehicle while she prepared to say goodbye.
“She’s not very far away, but it’s still a major, adult step,” Gross said.
With classes beginning Monday, UA reported having “right over 5,700 students” expected to live in UA’s 17 residence halls and a university apartment complex, said Scott Flanagin, executive director of communications for the university’s student affairs division.
Demand may outstrip supply, even after UA last year added 630 beds to expand available housing for 5,732 students. Some students will likely start in temporary spaces pending the cancellation of other housing contracts, Flanagin said.
Temporary space might involve sharing a room with a resident assistant or living in a dorm space converted temporarily to living quarters, Flanagin said.
“We don’t know exactly how many. It’s still changing day to day,” Flanagin said. The university generally requires first-year students to live on campus for their freshman years. Some upperclassman also live on campus.
Jan Hahn described an emotional journey as she prepared to drop off her son, Nick.
“I cried on the way up here from Texarkana,” she said.
But the enthusiasm shown by volunteers — and incoming students — made Wednesday’s move far from somber. Music blasted across the parking lot near Hotz Honors and Maple Hill dormitories. Several other members of the UA community, including Chancellor G. David Gearhart, also greeted incoming students and their families and helped them move in.
Flanagin said about 350 volunteers were stationed near different residence halls ready to help with about 1,000 expected arrivals. Move-ins began last week, and most students are now in their new homes.
“It seems like a good amount of space,” said Chris Kilburn, 18, from Benton. He arrived Wednesday before his roommate, his boxed belongings occupying most of the middle of his room in Hotz Honors Hall. The classic space-saving dorm setup of two identical desks beneath two elevated beds didn’t leave much space, but Kilburn seemed pleased. “It feels very up to date,” he said.
His relatives traveled from Benton to drop him off. With their departure and the unknowns of college life ahead, he admitted to being a little nervous. “But I’m also excited. It’s a new chapter,” he said.
UA’s student population now tops 25,000, and August also brings plenty of activity at off-campus apartments in Fayetteville.
Maggie Owens, general manager for the new complex The Cardinal at West Center, said Tuesday that only 10 beds were left to be leased in the 471-bed facility.
“We anticipate that no later than the first day of school we will be 100 percent occupied,” Owens said. The complex rents out bedrooms within larger apartments, a common business model for private student housing complexes that cater to college students. Fayetteville has seen several such complexes open recently, with University House, The Vue and Sterling Frisco apartments opening last year.
“Of course, many of the apartments in Fayetteville have been designed with students in mind for a very long time,” said Kathy Deck, director of UA’s Center for Business and Economic Research.
At least one newer student-focused apartment has not been as full as others. The Grove, which opened in 2012, had only a 60.9 percent occupancy rate as of Dec. 31, 2013, according to Campus Crest Communities Inc., which disclosed occupancy rates for several properties it owns or partly owns in a June filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Representatives of The Grove did not return messages seeking comment.
But Deck said the occupancy numbers for one property aren’t representative of the rate for the whole area, which has been above 92 percent recently.
On campus, the sheer size of the dorms made an impression on Rachel Gross, 18.
“There’s a lot of people,” Gross said, describing the size of the 416-bed Hotz Honors Hall, her new home. But the aspiring urban planner said she’s “super excited” to begin life as a UA student.
“I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time,” she said.