Lincoln University classes start Monday.
And, for the second year, LU is starting the school year with some students staying in a local hotel, at the university's expense.
"As it currently stands, we anticipate 100 students staying off campus until we've completed our census gathering in the beginning weeks of the semester," University Relations Director Misty Young said last week. "Immediately following census, and as vacancies become available, students will be moved to on-campus housing."
LU is expecting between 650 and 700 more students than were on campus at this time last year, President Kevin Rome said Friday.
"In the scheme of things, it's a good problem to have - if you have to have one," he said. "The alternative is much more detrimental to the campus - not having students.
"The thing that affects us is, we really want every student to have as positive an experience as possible. And we hate displacing students."
Administrators are tallying the costs of housing those students off campus, then getting them back-and-forth between their hotel rooms and classes.
"It's a constant shuttle," Rome said.
The students currently living off-campus eventually should have on-campus rooms, the president explained, because of "students who don't show up (or) who decide to leave - or if we have students who have behavioral issues and are required to move off-campus."
Those most-affected by the Lincoln housing shortage are returning students, Rome said, because, "Our goal is to accommodate freshmen on campus first."
Outside of using area hotel rooms in the short-term, LU will have to find more residence hall spaces on its campus.
But building that space takes time and money - and the university cannot use its state funding for non-academic purposes, including on-campus living spaces.
Those spaces have to be paid for either by gifts to the school or by the students' room charges.
"I've explained to some students that, in the university world, you can't build or prepare more housing until you have a demonstrated need," Rome said. "So, what's being created by us having the students in the hotel is demonstrating the need - and once we demonstrate the need, we'll be able to meet and accommodate students in the future.
"Unfortunately, any time you grow and have changes, there may be people who are inconvenienced - but the great thing that comes out of that is they actually make it better for those who come after them, because it allows us to have the data to support increasing our housing offerings."
Rome and Lincoln's curators already have discussed some options - including building a new residence hall on the northwest corner of Locust and Atchison streets, south of the Scruggs Residence Hall that is the school's newest housing unit.
But that will take some time to plan, design and build - something officials can do better once this new school year is underway.
Young said, "It is best practice to have at least three years of data to show the need to build new facilities.
"While the university is in a state of urgency as it relates to housing, we don't want to be premature in our decision-making, as enrollment at institutions of higher learning ebb and flow yearly."
Meanwhile, Rome said, "We are considering remodeling a current facility that's not being used now that we would be able to use next fall."
That would be Martin Hall, an older dormitory building that's been closed because it needs to be remodeled. Renovating older structures, though, can be more difficult and expensive in order to add amenities that attract today's students.
"What we're looking at would be minimal," Rome said. "We would just repair the rooms so they could be occupied.
"We would look at probably the HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) and make sure the infrastructure is functional."
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