The University of Connecticut Department of Residential Life sent an email to students on Dec. 17 stating that for the Fall 2025 housing selection process, sophomores, juniors and seniors were no longer guaranteed on-campus housing.
This meant that students who were not given housing after applying would automatically be placed on the housing waitlist and offered housing as vacancies occur. Students who applied after the application deadline would also be placed on the waitlist, according to the 2025-2026 Housing Contract Draft.
The email encouraged students to apply for on-campus housing as soon as the application became available. According to the email, if there was a high demand for housing, students who applied later in the period had the chance of being placed on the waitlist. The application period lasted from Jan. 1 to Feb. 14, 2025, according to the ResLife website.
On Feb. 21, ResLife sent emails to students notifying them if they received eligibility to participate in the housing selection process. Students were given housing, and some were put on the waitlist. However, the number of students on the waitlist is currently unknown.
Since then, the school has received backlash from students and parents alike.
Who received housing?
According to a written statement from University Spokesperson Stephanie Reitz, “All current first-year incoming students who applied on time have been guaranteed housing for the Fall 2025.”
She also stated that “numerous sophomores, juniors, seniors, new transfers, campus change students (those moving from a regional campus to Storrs), and others have already been guaranteed a space, so long as they applied by the deadline.”
However, when asked for the specific number of students on the waitlist, Reitz explained that the “waitlist is changing and being reduced on a constant basis, as people are provided with housing offers and removed from the list,” and any numbers provided would be “quickly outdated.”
Reitz was also asked questions related to how many students applied for housing overall, how many students from each year were put on the waitlist and what date in the application period ResLife began to put students on the waitlist due to high demand. Reitz did not respond to these questions in her statement.
Jessica Amaral, a sixth-semester exercise science major, was put on the waitlist after applying for Fall 2025 housing on Jan. 10. She said she had planned to live in the Charter Oak Apartments or Hilltop Apartments for her senior year, but those plans were shut down after being told that she would not be guaranteed housing.
“I was in shock because I didn’t know it was a first come first serve sort of thing. I am from Connecticut and live an hour and a half away. It was all just a big mess and no consideration for the people with financial need. Especially even my roommates who live out of state,” Amaral said.
Why the change?
UConn has a history of housing shortages over the past few years, with many students being put on the waitlist and incoming freshmen not having a guarantee of housing during the summer leading into their freshman year.
The changes to the housing guarantee were part of UConn’s solution to the freshman housing problem, according to a letter from UConn President Radenka Maric to Senators Stephen Harding and Henri Martin in response to questions regarding the housing changes.
Maric stated in the letter that the decision to “prioritize and guarantee housing for first-year students was recommended by Student Life and Enrollment leadership and ultimately approved by the President in consultation with her cabinet.”
Maric explained that their other option to relieve the housing problem was to reduce the size of the incoming freshman class. This would have meant UConn offering 5,000 fewer people admission. The incoming fall freshman class is expected to be 4,500 students, and UConn received more than 62,000 applications originally, according to Maric.
Students have expressed their wish that UConn would accept fewer students and prioritize students who are already on campus on social media and elsewhere.
Amaral said she believes that UConn could have handled the housing problem differently.
“I think it was really wrong and should have been addressed in a better way such as rejecting more people from UConn, so this housing issue wouldn’t be a problem in the first place,” Amaral said.
UConn has been encouraged to increase enrollment by state lawmakers in recent months and Maric addressed this in response to why UConn does not decrease enrollment.
“The University is being encouraged to grow enrollment in order to meet workforce demands and grow revenues. There are challenges to growth including on campus housing supply. However, as UConn currently houses 65% of the student community, UConn is serving more students by percentage than any large institution in the country,” Maric said.
Maric also emphasized that UConn has been working to support off-campus developments as well.
Not what students were promised
Students and families have also expressed a feeling of betrayal from UConn due to the housing change. Previous to this, students who applied on time were guaranteed eight semesters of housing, according to the 2024-2025 Housing Contract. Students like Amaral feel that UConn should have kept their promise of eight semesters as that is what they signed up for when they chose to come to UConn.
“I was promised four years of on campus housing. It’s also a big financial burden that I will have to face, and one of the reasons I chose to come to UConn was because it would be financially better, so this was very unfair,” Amaral said.
Maric responded to this complaint by stating that the housing contract, which includes “prioritizations and guidelines associated with students’ expectations for living on campus,” is updated annually and is updated well ahead of time. She also stated that “the university must establish priorities for housing based on the housing supply” and that UConn has worked to create more housing for students over the past few years.
The change has presented unexpected financial burdens for students like Amaral as she now is forced to look for off-campus housing rather than wait and see if she gets off the waitlist. She signed a lease but expressed that it is not what she wanted.
“It’s going to be pretty challenging since it’s going to be more money than expected. And I will have to take out more loans, But I have no other option. But at least the housing is nice,” Amaral said.
Was there enough transparency?
Some have also expressed that there was not enough notice or reminders related to the policy change. Besides the email sent to students and parents on Dec. 17 and 18, and an email on Dec. 30 notifying students that the housing application opened up the next day, no other emails or notices were sent to students related to the change.
In past years, ResLife has sent out multiple reminder emails to students who had not turned in their housing application. Students who did not turn in their applications until later in the period this year reported that they did not receive any reminder emails.
Johnathan Delskey, a fourth-semester statistics major, said that he did not find out about the housing policy change until after he submitted his housing application.
“The first time I heard about it was when I actually got the email that I was waitlisted and my initial reactions were shock, confusion, then straight anger,” Delskey said.
Delskey applied the day after the application deadline, as he said he had no idea the application was even open due to a lack of communication from ResLife.
“I had no idea the application was even open, as no one around me mentioned it and the one email I got was when I was on winter vacation. The last email I got was on New Year’s Eve and then not another one during the application period. I firmly believe they did this intentionally to get people to miss the deadline,” Delskey said.
When asked if she felt UConn made the housing change in a transparent fashion, Maric responded in the letter saying they did, as they sent out an email that clearly outlined the new process.
Delskey is now one of the students waiting to see if he will be removed from the waitlist. His original plan had been to move into South Campus or Connecticut Hall if he had received housing, however, now he is left to wait and see if he will be given housing.
“I’m waiting it out because with my disability accommodation, I am at the top of the waitlist and will most likely get an offer. But if I don’t or if the offer is to live somewhere like North, I would rather look off campus. But housing is not telling me much so that’s giving me stress,” Delskey said.
Maric stated that housing offers to students on the waitlist will depend on availability and most likely won’t happen until the late spring and summer.