Hotel UMass Amherst: Some incoming students to live in nearby hotel due to on-campus housing demand
On a dark Hadley highway, a cool 15 minutes from campus, more than 100 UMass Amherst students will spend their first semester living in a hotel due to increased demand for on-campus housing.
A UMass Amherst spokesperson says 120 incoming transfer students will be assigned to double-occupancy rooms at the Econo Lodge in Hadley because of strong first-year enrollment and an increased interest among returning students to live on campus this year.
The hotel students’ move in date is Friday, September 2.
“We find that students greatly enjoy the experience of living on campus, and two cohorts of new students largely missed a full campus, residential experience due to the pandemic over the past two years,” a UMass spokesperson said. “As a result, we believe that’s why more returning students chose to live on campus. We typically meet the on-campus housing needs of transfer students, but were unable to do so this year.”
The students assigned to the hotel space will receive a housing discount from the school and the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority (PVTA) bus service will run throughout the day to assist them with getting to and from campus.
School officials say enrollment figures for the fall semester haven’t been finalized yet, but they’re expecting about 22,700 undergraduates to enroll in the university for 2022. That number is about the same as last fall, according to the spokesperson.
Additional details about the hotel move in process can be found on the school’s website.
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