A year after many incoming students felt misled, the University of Guelph is increasing efforts to inform incoming students about its residence selection process.
The days of guaranteed residence spots for anyone other than international students appears to be a thing of the past for now.
International students have until June 1 to place their deposit for residence. If demand exceeds supply, as it did last year, a lottery system will be used to allocate spots for all other students.
In 2022 the U of G received 5,150 residence applications for 4,700 spots. Parents and students spoke with GuelphToday last year expressing their frustration and disappointment over not being accepted into residence after they believed they were promised one, sometimes in school marketing literature that was handed out.
The school increased the number of spots in residence to 5,100 by converting double rooms to triples and turning some lounges, common rooms into bedrooms.
The expansion from 4,700 to 5,100 spots was deliberate and spaces were assessed within residences and were examined to enhance room capacity where space allowed, said Deirdre Healey, U of G senior director, media relations and stakeholder communications, in an email.
“This is because as part of regular operations, we reserve rooms as flexible spaces. These spaces are used to accommodate temporary occupancy and when they aren't occupied, they are used for other purposes such as meeting spaces, study rooms or lounge spaces,” said Healey.
A similar assessment was done in 2003, the so-called double cohort year, when Grade 13 was dropped and Grade 12 and 13 graduated in the same year.
There was a shortfall of 245 spots on residence and students were placed on a waitlist in the fall of 2022.
The upcoming school year has between 4,700 to 4,800 residence spots, Healey said.
Are there plans this year to mitigate a shortfall of residence spots for incoming students? The short answer is no.
“This year we have increased our focus on providing information about our residence spaces and the selection process as part of our regular interactions with potential and incoming first-year students,” said Healey.
Incoming first-year U of G students have until June 1 to apply for a spot on campus residences.
Students will be advised on June 9 if their applications were accepted.
“This coming academic year, we hope to house as many first-year students who are interested in living in residence as we can accommodate and will assess the need for expansion if necessary. This would include exploring the possibility of satellite locations, which is what we did when we housed 40 students at the Days Inn this past academic year,” said Healey.
It isn’t known yet how many U of G first year academic acceptances will be offered or how many residence spots will be offered.
