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OXFORD, Ohio (AP) — Miami University in southwest Ohio will welcome its largest incoming freshman class this fall, and officials are anticipating a housing shortage.
Spokeswoman Claire Wagner said the school expects about 7,800 requests to live on campus this year. The university's Oxford campus only has the capacity to house about 7,500 students, with some dorms remaining under construction.
The university, which requires freshmen and sophomores to live on campus, is working with off-campus apartment complexes to house the displaced students, The Journal-News reported (http://bit.ly/1Mb1BcF ).
Wagner said the university has enough room to house all freshman students but not all sophomores.
One apartment complex is located roughly a mile off campus while another is less than a half-mile from the school.
"You do estimates, you think you're being conservative and, as we found, we've had stronger classes in the two previous years and the classes were larger than what was initially anticipated," said David Creamer, the school's finance director. "It's caused us to have to make some adjustments."
Wagner said students placed in off-campus apartments will still be required to pay on-campus housing rates because the university will provide resident advisers, hall directors and custodians.
Students in the apartments will need to purchase on-campus meal plans, as all on-campus residents are required to do.
The University of Cincinnati has also recently contracted with private off-campus housing complexes after enrolling record-breaking classes. Students there were similarly required to pay on-campus fees and purchase meal plans.
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Information from: The JournalNews of Hamilton, http://www.journal-news.com/cgi-bin/liveique.acgi$sch=jnfront?jnfront
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