TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — Living on campus is a right of passage. So much so that FAMU students want to stay past the required first year.
Currently 869 students sit on the housing waitlist.
FAMU President Dr. Larry Robinson said they're prioritizing first generation college students.
"We're moved back the date for existing students who are living in residence halls to find other options in the event that waitlist continues," said Dr. Robinson.
Taylor Williams is a freshman at FAMU, who says she had to live off campus the first year due to waitlist problems last fall. Although she did want to live on campus, she decided singing a lease off campus made more sense.
"I didn't want to go through getting my hopes up and trying to live on campus and being told again you've been placed on a waitlist. I know people who decided to live on campus and pay as soon as the portal opens and still end up on a waitlist," Williams explained.
FAMU's Board of Trustees is hoping to help with this issue with the approval of $11 million to negotiate contracts and agreements for three new buildings.
Two of which will be finished by Summer of 2025 and the third being finished by Fall of 2026. President Robinson says the new buildings will bring the grand total of beds on campus to more than 4,500, and that they'll be state of the art.
"They'll have study rooms, kitchens and all these special things inside of that. Just adjacent to the 700 bed facility we built a dining facility called the hub," said Dr. Robinson.
Dr. Robinson says now that the $11 million have been approved, they'll have to go through multiple steps to get approval before the buildings even start the construction process.
"It's going to take some work to get all this done, and I advise everyone to be patient with this process," he said.
Williams said after going through her experience with the waitlist, her advice to students is to look for an apartment now just in case.
"I don't think they're going to get off the waitlist and even if they do it's very last minute," she said.
Dr. Robinson said they recently acquired two buildings that would add another 236 beds to the total bed count on campus.
