During the spring of 2025, Marywood University received a record high number of freshmen admissions to the fall semester, presenting the school with the unique challenge of housing the many incoming students in the coming months.

There were multiple solutions to this issue, such as changing quads to quints in Loughran Hall, moving freshmen from Loughran Hall to Madonna Hall, and moving a small number of upperclassmen to the Woodland Residences.

When asked about the initial process and how it unfolded, Erica Armstrong, director of housing and residence life, responded that the admissions team had recruited a record number of students and that they did not know what the true numbers were going to be until Decision Day on May 1.

“Last year, we also had some designated spill over areas designated in Madonna Hall, just like we did this year, so there have been other years with high enrollment numbers and a higher number of first-year students to live on campus where we’ll designate a backup area,” Armstrong said. “Last year thankfully we were able to move everybody back over to Loughran Hall as the summer progressed, but this year because of the record number it just wasn’t possible.”

Due to the large freshman class, their team’s initial plan was subsequently changed. This led to restructuring of some of the rooms in Loughran. Armstrong states,“Just for context, there are 328 beds in Loughran and I already know that 11 of those beds are offline because we have RA staff, so I knew we’d only be able to utilize 317 spaces for students.”

“We decided to increase the capacity of only our four largest quads to quints without impacting the student experience. Our second (objective) was then designating a wing in Madonna Hall as overflow for first year housing. We didn’t want to convert temporary spaces because we wanted students to feel like they were moving into their home at Marywood.”

Armstrong says that despite an initial level of surprise from students about the move, they eventually came around to the idea, and the staff maintained a level of enthusiasm that allowed everything to go as smoothly as it did.

When asked about whether or not the department would be ready if an event like this occurred again, Armstrong states that the housing department not only had a plan already in development, but that she was able to finalize the plan after utilizing it, and is prepared for whatever admission situation Marywood finds itself in.

Lauren Kline, a resident director of the Woodland Residences and higher education management student, believes that the transition to the new housing locations was especially smooth, due to having Move In Day open on Saturday instead of Sunday. That gave upperclassmen an additional day to get situated. The RDs and RAs were prepped and ready, which allowed for a smooth start.

Marywood students have not needed to be relocated since the initial changes before the semester, and there have not been any reports of major unresolved issues with the changes.

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