Back to school: Hundreds of students still on housing waitlist

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) - Florida A&M parents and students are frustrated after hundreds of people are still on the waitlist for on-campus housing, while classes begin on Monday.

WCTV’s Staci Inez spoke with the parents who said they found out on short notice that their child wouldn’t have housing, which made the process of starting the year more difficult. However, with classes starting on Monday, they had to shift the focus on going back to school.

“I was very frantic. I mean very frantic, like I didn’t think anything like that was even possible,” Gerri Birch, one of the parents of a FAMU student, said.

Birch said her daughter completed the housing request back in April, but she found out four weeks before her scheduled move-in date that she would not have a place to stay on campus.

“It was frustrating, it was panic mode,” Birch said.

FAMU said that even though classes start on Monday, they are still actively working to get freshmen and transfer students living on campus.

“That’s a day by day, hour by hour activity and we’re going to keep pushing that until we get every room we can on campus made available to students who want to stay here,” FAMU President Dr. Larry Robinson said.

According to FAMU, there are currently 300 students on the waitlist, which is down from 395 on Monday and they’ve also had 198 cancellations.

“We’re working hard each and every day to narrow that list down, and it’s going down, so I’m happy about that,” Robinson said.

Birch said her daughter just got moved into an apartment on Wednesday, and while she understands the challenges for FAMU, she feels there could have been better communication.

“We probably would’ve made a different plan than we had to make because we could’ve made a more educated decision, but we’re still just blessed to have found something that works, Birch said.

FAMU said the housing director and staff will keep making phone calls and reaching out to students who would still like to live on campus, as more beds become available.

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