TSU students move in, but some face housing issues

By TOSIN FAKILE

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    NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) — A record number of Tennessee State University students will be moving onto campus this fall semester, with Tuesday the first of three move-in days scheduled.

The university says over 1,300 freshmen will move their things to live on campus. Administrators say it’s the highest number of incoming freshman in recent years.

“We are excited that we have so many students moving in, coming back to campus today. We have been anxiously waiting for students to return to campus this Fall,” said TSU President Dr. Glenda Glover. “This should be our largest freshman class. Last year was large too. That’s why we spaced it out this year. We have a longer move-in period. Plus, the social distancing.”

But as students started to move onto campus on Tuesday, some students who have applied and paid to live on campus reached out to News4 saying they’ve received no word yet on their housing.

“Classes start on August 16 but a lot of us don’t have housing, and the issue comes from we’ve been trying all summer and we applied early to figure out where we will be housed,” said Anthony Lindsley, a freshman at TSU. “For a lot of us it creates the issue because a lot of classmates live out of state and for them they don’t have any family in Tennessee or Nashville, so they’re wondering where they’ll be able to stay.”

News4 took the complaints of Lindsley and others to TSU administrators.

They told News4 that 97 percent of students have been assigned a place to live on campus, with a little under 300 students still needing a housing assignment.

The university says those students will receive an assignment within the next two days.

“We’re having to be creative with space. It’s a good problem but it is something we’re working through,” said Frank Stevenson, Associate Vice President and Dean Of Students at TSU. “We have a good plan in place. As we are doing this interview, we are making assignments now in those spaces.”

The university says they have about 3,000 beds on campus. Stevenson added that the record number of incoming freshman caused an unexpected problem for the university.

“We knew we would be over, but we had a lot of major news events and things that promoted the university in a positive light, and so we got somewhat of an unexpected surge in the last few weeks of our recruiting efforts,” Stevenson said. “We welcome all of the students, we want them here, but we’re figuring it out.”

“With TSU being in the press lately, we felt like we’re being shunned out and we’re not being taken care of the way that we should,” Lindsley said.

Administrators said they understand students’ concerns.

“We know the anxiety that adds to students in terms of having a place to stay, we’re totally committed to that. We’re communicating with them. We expect this to be resolved and all of those students assigned in the next 48 hours,” said Stevenson.

Stevenson said the university will be adding 700 new beds that should be available in about 11 months.

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