by EMILY MELTON
News Reporter

With each signed lease and every additional apartment room beginning to fill, next years’ housing options are becoming smaller and smaller.

Many students are still not aware of where they will live.

Appalachian State University’s annual Housing Fair will help students sort out their confusion.  

The event will take place in the International Hallway in Plemmons Student Union from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 5. 

The fair will give students the opportunity to talk to many local landlords, representatives from Housing and Residence Life and an attorney from the Judicial Affairs department.

A licensed attorney from the Student Legal Clinic will promote the services of the office, including free legal advice regarding landlord-tenant issues, minor criminal charges and traffic tickets.

Landlords will provide leases for students to sign.

They will also answer any questions potential tenants may have.

“It’s the perfect starting point and the perfect time of year to take care of housing for next year,” Elliot R. Kimball, Student Government Association director of External Affairs said.

After first-semester freshmen have been housed, there will be limited space for any other students to live on campus.

“It’s getting really hard for upperclassmen to remain in the dorms,” he said. “A lot of students who wanted to live on campus will have to look for off-campus housing.”

Kimball will be at the fair, exploring his housing options.

“At this point, I’m not sure where I’ll be living,” he said. “I won’t be living in the dorms. I’m ready to have my own apartment.”

Because of the growing population of Appalachian students, freshmen are now required to live on campus only during their first semester, instead of their first year.

Students who may have wanted to live on campus have felt the recent push to live elsewhere.

Though they may already be living on campus, they are still required to submit a housing re-application.

However, the re-application does not guarantee on-campus housing.

Sophomores who wish to remain on campus will be given priority housing over juniors and seniors, though even sophomores are beginning to feel the effect of the housing shortage.

Nathan E. Gibbs, sophomore political science major, had trouble finding on-campus housing for next year.

“It was hard for me, an upper classman,” Gibbs said. “I felt like I was being pushed off.”

In August, the Boone Town Council denied Appalachian’s request for additional housing in an area west of the Broyhill Inn & Conference Center.

However, expanding Appalachian’s on-campus housing may be an issue discussed in the future.

“I think housing is available, but housing preference is the biggest issue,” Kendal B. McDevitt, coordinator of Off-Campus Community Relations said.

She believes the Housing Fair will help students shop around for their different options.

“It you wait until the last minute, you can probably find housing somewhere, but it probably won’t be what you want,” McDevitt said. “It’s best to get everything taken care of now.”

She hopes to educate fair attendants of several issues she believes all off-campus students should be aware of.

For example, some areas in Boone do not allow more than two unrelated tenants to live in one house, McDevitt said.

“Last year, I dealt with a student who didn’t know about [the policy mentioned above], and he was charged $200 a day until he found another place to live,” she said. “It was during exams, too, so he had to deal with the issue and study for his exams at the same time. It was hard.”

The Housing Fair is free, and anyone may attend.

Friday is the last day current on-campus students may reapply for on-campus housing.

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