As illustrated by the approximately 100 Oakland University students displaced last week from their promised on-campus housing spaces, the overcrowding of campus housing is an issue.

Instead of moving into dorms on campus as planned, they were assigned to an area hotel.

Since the start of the semester, OU Housing Director Jim Zentmeyer said fifteen students have moved from the temporary Homewood Suites hotel digs on University Drive to an on-campus location.

Zentmeyer and the staff of the OU housing department swiftly and effectively handled the situation, but on-campus housing is an issue.

The office saw a 16 percent increase in the number of housing contracts this year, but there hasn’t been a 16 percent increase in the number of beds on campus. New housing options must be created in order to create a real solution to a real, growing issue.

It’s an issue that has been escalating. OU experienced its 13th straight year of enrollment growth last fall as the student population reached an all- time high of 19,053 students.

As more students come to campus, there has been a similar increase in the demand for housing. OU’s residence halls have had more than a 100 percent occupancy rate over the last five years.

A November 2009 Oakland Post article by reporter Mike Sandula reported that Mary Beth Snyder, vice president of student affairs and enrollment management, had a proposal prepared that would have doubled the amount of beds available on campus over the next three decades.

Bravo. But.

The proposal was never presented to the board of trustees because Snyder and the board agreed at the time that the Human Health Building should be the sole focus of attention ahead of beginning another construction project.

A solution should have been pursued immediately after plans for the Human Health Building were finalized.

The groundbreaking ceremony for the building took place last April. Zentmeyer said he has a plan ready that will add 440 beds to campus housing next year, which he hopes will be approved by the board of trustees. But it won’t alleviate the problem in time for students seeking campus housing next fall and definitely won’t help the students still currently living at the Auburn Hills Homewood Suites hotel.

The board may not want to absorb the debt incurred because of the high cost — Snyder’s 2009 proposal had a projected cost of $28 million — of constructing new housing options, but it will create the longterm solution needed to resolve the issue at hand.

As Oakland University strives to be a national university and shed its commuter school image, the board of trustees needs to remember that accommodating the influx of students is also of paramount importance.

Zentmeyer said in an interview with The Oakland Post that he has “trust and faith in the university to tell when it will be most beneficial to build” additional housing.

It’s time to match student demand and begin the discussion on adding campus housing again.