This fall, the percentage of UConn undergraduates living on campus will be the highest in the University’s history, with more students than ever applying to live on campus or return to housing.

Steve Kremer, assistant vice president for student affairs at UConn, says that approximately 12,500 students – roughly 73 percent of all undergraduates – will live on campus during the coming semester, including 8,348 who applied for and will return to housing from last semester.

“This is a trend we’re seeing nationally,” says Kremer. “Students who live in University housing are in closer proximity to classes and services and all their bills can be rolled into one. Living on campus is just more affordable and more convenient.”

UConn has more on-campus residents than any other university of its size.

The exact reason for this trend is hard to pinpoint, but Kremer has some guesses: although Mansfield is a rural area, he notes that having so many students living in the dorms creates an “urban density” on campus, offering students a positive, traditional college experience.

“We also do a very good job in maintaining our buildings and responding to students’ needs on campus, which also helps to create demand,” he says. “The time and effort we spend on maintenance, upkeep, and programming is noticeable, and seems to be appreciated by parents as well.”

He notes that students living in residence halls can participate in learning communities that offer students the ability to live and take a class with students who share similar interests.  These communities enhance the academic environment found in the residence halls and bridge the classroom experience to daily life, Kremer says.

And it’s a cultural change in some ways, too, he says; years ago, campus was often so deserted on weekends that dining halls weren’t open.

“It’s a very different campus now,” says Kremer.

But Residential Life is also a victim of its own success: even after adding 450 beds over the last two years in anticipation of increased demand, it is clear that it still won’t be enough. Kremer and his staff are spending their summer working to ensure that enough bed space will be available when the semester begins at the end of August.

“The bottom line is that every student who has a signed housing contract will have a bed on campus this coming semester,” says Kremer. “It’s just a matter of combing the residence halls to utilize every space available. We will honor every commitment we’ve made.”

Freshmen move in this year on Aug. 27. Classes begin Aug. 30.