As Elon University Residence Life prepares for housing selection for the 2025-26 academic year, rising juniors and seniors are faced with the decision of whether or not they want to continue to live on-campus.
This housing selection, with applications due Feb. 10, comes after the new construction of East Commons and Loy Farm Ecovillage, which added 102 beds for students, according to Elon University, and Residence Life allowing students who live in Crest, Oaks and Danieley Center to renew their leases. Last year, Residence Life announced that students living in those apartments would be unable to renew their leases.
One of the reasons behind last year’s decision to limit lease renewal was to make sure there was enough room for rising sophomores to live on-campus due to Elon’s housing requirement, which requires undergraduate students to live on campus for their first two years, according to Kirsten Carrier, director of Residence Life.
“We had been so tight on housing previously that we wanted to make sure we had enough housing for our sophomores,” Carrier said. “Last year, we did the calculations, and we didn't have enough bed spaces for our sophomores. So we did have to kind of limit how many of those juniors and seniors were able to kind of renew their leases for the following year.”
According to Elon University’s Residential Life website, there are 770 apartments offered by the university that are available for sophomores, juniors and seniors to live in. In addition to the amount of apartments available, there are also around 4,200 total beds on campus according to Carrier. There are 1,607 freshmen and 1,509 sophomores leaving around 1,000 beds available for juniors and seniors.
Despite being allowed to renew leases, Elon sophomore Taryn Jordan, who is currently living in Danieley Center, wants to move to Oaks or Park Place and wants to continue to live on-campus despite the stress that housing selection can cause her.
“The battle for apartments is really difficult going into your sophomore year,” Jordan said. “It's super hard, because if you don't get a good time, then you're not gonna get the best place to live. We're going to get whatever's left.”
Last year during housing selection, Jordan and her roommates ended up in Danieley Center, and despite being majority sophomore housing, she said it wasn’t her first choice.
According to Carrier, the housing selection times are completely randomized unlike other selections like course registration which is determined by your completed credits.
This is not the only change happening to housing selection. With the return of lease renewals, students with accommodations will no longer be given a placement prior to housing selection to meet their accommodations.
Due to the decision to stop lease renewals last year, Carrier said students with accommodations went through a pre-placement process to ensure that their accommodations were met.
With students being allowed to renew their leases, Carrier said rising juniors and seniors who have housing accommodations can renew their lease on their current housing location.
Elon transfer student Sylvie Swerdlow was able to renew their lease on their apartment in Park Place, which already meets their housing accommodations.
“I'm fortunate enough that I have all my documentation, and my doctors are willing to fill out the paperwork for me,” Swerdlow said.
Despite being able to renew their lease, Swerdlow said they are worried about there being enough housing available for students who have accommodations.
“I think the disabilities resources here is really good,” Swerdlow said. “The issue is maybe there not being enough ADA accessible places for students or students who don't need accommodations being in those apartments already.”
Elon sophomore Katie Pescatore, who lives in an eight-person flat in Danieley Center said she will be moving off-campus into apartments that is being passed down to her by a graduating member of her sorority.
“It was just easy, I didn't have to think anything about it,” Pescatore said. “I'm taking all of her furniture too, it's all just settled for me.”
Fellow sophomore Alyse Pelletier is also moving off-campus to the Abellion and Provincetown homes to be closer to her classes for her major.
“It's right across the street from the nursing building, and I'm a nursing major, so most of my classes will be right there,” Pelliter said.
Proximity is the same reason why Jordan wants to continue to live on-campus.
“It's really convenient and close to all my classes,” Jordan said. “I really like the benefits that you get from Elon, like we still have the FIXit service, and it's just like easy to be connected with campus.”
Carrier said the decision to allow students to renew their leases is due to the construction of East Commons and the EcoVillage.
“We have literally created more than 100 new bed spaces for our student body generally,” Carrier said. “I'm able to provide more housing to upper class students because our first-years didn't need more beds.”
In addition to adding 102 bed spaces, the class of 2028 — rising sophomores who are required to live on campus — have 70 less students than the class of 2027 meaning that those 70 extra spaces can be used for rising juniors and seniors who wish to live on campus.
The housing selection process includes filling out the housing application and matching with roommates. Carrier said that the application is rolling and can be submitted after Feb. 10, however students who completed the application after the deadline will have the last choice in housing selection.