GRAND FORKS – About 40 more students have requested housing on the UND campus for next fall than there are beds available.

Art Malloy, vice president for student affairs, says the university is collecting information on local housing options for students who cannot be housed by the university.

UND also anticipates that some reserved beds will become available as students with current residence hall assignments drop out or otherwise change their plans. The University expects to fill all residence hall assignments by Friday, May 31.

“UND is like most universities: If there is a waiting list of 40 students, most of them get accepted,” Malloy said.

Recently, the Herald reported that a surge in the number of freshmen applying for on-campus housing has put UND's housing supply under strain, prompting the university to reassign returning students to a limited number of residence halls and place returning students who had applied for single rooms in double rooms.

UND also plans to reopen Johnstone Hall in the fall to increase bed capacity, similar to what happened with Smith Hall last year.

Even then, the housing status of students who applied later in the dorm process — particularly new graduate students, transfer students, and some returning students — remained in limbo while the university tried to figure out whether it had enough beds to accommodate everyone.

Last fall, Malloy said, UND housed about 2,200 students in its dormitories; this year, all 2,603 ​​available beds on campus are reserved for the fall.

Demand for university-owned housing also exceeds supply, Troy Noeldner, director of campus housing and living, told the Herald.

Malloy attributed some of the increased demand for housing to the construction of new dormitories in recent years.

“Most universities don't have this problem, and they don't have it because they're not as popular as UND,” he said.

The university is also preparing for a “summer surge” in admissions, which will be driven by international students, transfer students and other late admits.

UND will accept applications for international students (excluding Canada) until June 15 and for all others until August 15.

Malloy said UND is talking with property owners near the university about reserving spaces as a short-term option for late admits who would otherwise be unable to find housing before the fall semester.

“We don’t know what we will need at this point, but we want to be prepared,” he said.

He declined to say which property owners the university has contacted. Any contract to reserve housing for the fall will be signed sometime in June, Malloy said.

Joshua Irvine covers K-12 and higher education and the Grand Forks County Commission for the Grand Forks Herald. He joined the Herald in October 2023.