Some students will be starting off this term on the waiting list for housing after applying for housing after the due date.

“I am filled to capacity, and we do not guarantee housing after July 15,” Assistant Dean of Student Life Janet Evans said.

Evans still has about six people on the waiting list, which was as high as 20 students at one point. These students applied for housing after the July 15 date, which is why the university has not accommodated them.

“We were fine up until around the first week in August,” Evans said. “Then I started to get some in, and we would have people cancel or totally withdraw, so I was able to fill them in. Then all of the sudden we just got bombarded.”

In her 37 years in the Office of Student Life, Evans said she has never had this problem where students have waited until the last weeks before the new term to submit their housing contracts.

The university has had to get temporary housing for students in the past before.

“One year we had students living in the hotel down in the Strip,” Evans said. “Another year we had them either in Fidelity or Standard Life because they submitted everything prior to July 15.”

Both the Fidelity and Standard Life buildings are apartments located on Fourth Avenue which house many Point Park students.

While the acceptance of the largest class the university has seen has impacted the housing situation, it is not the only factor that has made housing such an issue this year.

“We continue to maintain a good returning student percentage, so the last two years, we have had a higher percentage of students who were here in the spring stay in the resident halls in the fall,” Dean of Student Life Michael Gieseke said.  “We’re already starting with more students than we’ve had in the past before we even get to the freshman class and the transfers.”

The completion of the Pittsburgh Playhouse also brings additional housing into question.

“With the Playhouse coming Downtown next year, we are looking at our resident population and space and looking to see if there is an opportunity for us to add more space in and around the area,” Gieseke said.

Evans also commented on the possibility of students moving from Oakland to Downtown, saying that she believes Point Park will see more students moving closer to campus when the Playhouse relocates.

For those choosing to continue living in Oakland, the fate of the shuttle service has come into question.

“If the shuttles were to stop running, I guess I would be forced to use the bus, but that would not be ideal,” junior cinema production major and Oakland resident Triston Murphy said.

“The university administration has said that, for at least one year, they will keep the shuttles running to and from Oakland,” Gieseke said.

During that year, the administration will discuss whether the shuttles will continue running to Oakland, if other stops in different neighborhoods will be added or if it cuts off completely.