Overenrollment and a lack of available dorm space caused roughly 80 freshman students to start the fall semester living in the Wyndham Grand hotel in Downtown near Point State Park.  

Point Park’s partnership with the Wyndham Grand will cease after the fall semester. Students will be assigned new housing for the spring semester, although the university has not yet determined where that will be.  

Students living in the hotel will not see an increase or decrease in the cost of room and board.  

“It’s an opportunity, not an obstacle,” Keith Paylo, vice president of student affairs, said.

Undergraduate enrollment has remained relatively steady since 2020, but the 2025-2026 academic year has brought a notable increase. The official count will not be available until census day on Sept. 12, but university administrators estimate that enrollment increased 25% this year.

“I know that we’re going well into the double digits,” Paylo said.  

According to Wyndham’s director of sales and marketing, Ryan Hunt, the alternative arrangement between Point Park and the hotel was not established until August.  

All Point Park students were notified in July that alternative housing would be needed, but those assigned to Wyndham did not learn of their placements until two weeks before classes began.  

“I found out the week before I came on a Greyhound to Pittsburgh,” said first-year Naomi Williams. 

Kaitlyn Ploppi, a first-year, said she realized she would not be living on campus after opening PointWeb to see her campus housing option described plainly as “hotel.” 

“I thought it meant Lawrence Hall because it used to be a hotel,” Ploppi said. “Then I called, and they told me, ‘No, you’re actually living in a hotel.’”  

Students were assigned rooms with two queen beds, a television, one desk, one wardrobe and a randomly selected roommate. The university has provided one clothing rack per room to compensate for the lack of storage.  

The hotel is also equipped with a gym and a pool which are available to students free of charge.  

Students living at the Wyndham Grand also are still required to purchase a meal plan, though neither meal swipes or flex dollars can be used at the hotel’s coffee shop or restaurant.  

According to Paylo, all on-campus amenities are available to students living in the hotel, including laundry services. 

Despite the need for secondary housing arrangements, the three floors at the Wyndham Grand occupied by Point Park students were assigned two Resident Educators, or REs.  

“Because of what happened, the school had to sign on to a laundry company,” said Lindsay Simmons, a junior and RE at Point Park. “But the students have to pay $2 per pound of laundry they do.”  

This is Simmons’ second year as an RE. This year, she didn’t learn she would be assigned to the hotel until early August. Additionally, she only found out that they would have to relocate after the fall semester four days before students moved in.  

“My students are definitely worried about where they’re going to go next semester. I build a community with a lot of these students, and then they’re just going to be ripped away from me and placed in random open spots with totally new roommates,” Simmons said.  

Unlike on-campus housing, RE’s cannot decorate the floors they’re assigned to and students are not allowed to decorate their rooms.   

According to Paylo, all questions about housing can be directed to him. His office is located on the seventh floor of the Student Center.  

“Our goal is always to have all of our students on campus when it affords itself. So that is what we’re working on.”