Dozens of students returning to campus fall term were in for a shock: The university had no place to house them. The university sent students to a Fairborn apartment complex, the old Omega Psi Phi fraternity house, and a dormitory at the Athletes in Action headquarters in Xenia.
Housing was so tight that some students actually spent the first week of the term living in the common areas of Harry Johns Residence Hall. “I don’t like it at all,” Sophomore Jordan Hayes said. “I brought a lot of expensive stuff to campus (and I have no place secure to put them).”
Sophomore Lynn Alston also spent a week living in a common area. “Central could have let students know that there may not be enough room, instead of just letting people come to school confused as to where they’re going to sleep,” Alston said. “Some students drove more than 12 hours just to not have anywhere to stay.”
Alston said some students slept in their cars, while others bunked with friends.
University administrators said that the housing shortage was caused, in part, by delays in completing a new residence hall and wellness center on the north end of campus. That hall will likely now open in mid-October. In addition, the university signed a contract with Wilberforce University to house more than 100 of its students on campus. As a result, Wilberforce students arrived on campus with secure housing, while some Central State students did not.