SC State begins residence hall room assignments for Fall 2024 semester

Students on the housing waitlist also have been instructed to monitor their university email accounts for updates.

ORANGEBURG, S.C. – South Carolina State University on Friday, July 19, began assigning residence hall rooms to students who applied for housing before the June 10 deadline.

The placement process will continue into next week.

The administration will continue to communicate with other students who have been placed on a waitlist about housing needs and options.

All students are encouraged to monitor their SC State email accounts for updates.

Students will receive notifications through the StarRez residency management software, which SC State implemented this spring to more efficiently process housing applications, make room assignments, track room inventory and communicate with residents,.

President Alexander Conyers said such controls are especially important because of the interest from prospective students -- more than 12,500 new students have applied for admission to the university for the Fall 2024 Semester -- while residential space is limited both on and off campus.

“SC State is in high demand because of the quality education we provide and our vibrant HBCU culture,” Conyers said. “We simply do not have the residential capacity to accommodate all requests.

“StarRez has allowed us to systematically manage the university’s housing placements and vacancies in real time rather than through cumbersome manual data entry and tracking,” SC State President Alexander Conyers said. “We expect placement this fall to be efficient with open lines of communication to students and their families.”

SC State has 1,324 beds available on campus for the fall, along with another 830 beds in off-campus facilities leased by the SC State Housing Foundation for a total of 2,154 beds.

So, until more housing is available, the university is strategically managing its enrollment, but SC State also is working on several fronts to reduce the housing crunch.

Current and future housing initiatives

SC State hopes to complete three renovation projects in time for the Fall 2025 Semester:

• Sojourner Truth Hall’s $15 million overhaul. The 14-story residence hall will provide 384 beds.
• Rehabilitating the long-vacant Queens Village apartment complex will provide room for 40 students.
• SC State is requesting assistance from the state of South Carolina to remodel Rowe and Nix Halls, which will provide up to 58 beds.

Other housing developments:

• The university also is in the initial planning phase for a 500-bed residential complex on campus.
• Orangeburg’s Railroad Corner project includes a student residential complex in which the SC State Housing Foundation will lease space.
• Private developers will soon break ground for two new student housing complexes on Russell Street. Coupled with the residential space at Railroad Corner, the Russell Street complexes will free up residence hall rooms on the SC State campus, allowing the university to admit and house more students.

Online freshman cohort

For the Fall 2024 Semester, SC State has limited the number of freshmen who can be housed in residence halls. The university has developed, however, an online cohort that will allow additional first-year students to complete their first semester of coursework virtually.

The cohort is designed for eligible students interested in saving money while still engaging with professors, peers and campus activities and staying on track for success.

“The COVID-19 pandemic forced educators to find alternative ways of reaching students,” Conyers said. “Those experiences have offered us insight into what does and does not work in a virtual learning environment, and we have applied those lessons to this cohort.

“Most if not all these incoming students had exposure to online learning during the pandemic, so they, too, know what it takes to succeed in the virtual classroom,” Conyers said.

The online cohort will allow the university to admit more first-year students while maintaining more residential space for returning students. Students eligible for the cohort are being contacted by SC State's Division of Enrollment Management.