Point Park University students face new off-campus housing mandate for 2027-28 school year

Students at Point Park University in Downtown Pittsburgh said school officials recently revealed a new mandate changing who can live in on-campus housing. It's leaving those same students with more questions than answers.

Junior Molly Fircak thought she had her housing all figured out. From the time she took a tour, she said she was told she could live on campus for all her years at school.

"I thought, you know, they had the dorms. It was a small school. Everything would be fine, and now we're looking at commuting," Fircak said.

Now, she's not sure that will be the case when she's a senior next fall.

"It becomes really, really nerve-wracking and really scary to have to figure out," Fircak said.

Fircak said she and the rest of the student body received an email from school leadership on Halloween saying, in part, "With the university's requirement that first- and second-year students live on campus, we anticipate that campus housing will reach full capacity for the fall 2027 semester. As a result, students who will be juniors, seniors, or graduate students in 2027–2028 academic year should begin planning now to secure off campus housing for next year."

"They're being very vague," Fircak said.

Fircak and other students feel officials haven't been straight with the upperclassmen.

"We don't know what options are going to be available to us, like for whenever housing opens in spring," one university sophomore said. "Why would I apply for an apartment whenever I can apply for on-campus housing? It doesn't make any sense."

Students said leases are about to open and there's bound to be more competition.

"For the apartment that I have started looking at, the lease opens the week that I come back from Thanksgiving break, so I don't have time to like play around and wait for them, like I need to know now," the sophomore said.

At the same time, students are worried that moving off campus will mean additional costs for utilities, furniture and food. Then there's transportation if they live farther away, safety concerns with night classes, and the possibility of sacrificing their college experience.

While they know freshmen are already overflowing at the Wyndham hotel this year, they don't feel the school is handling things in the right way.

"Freshmen typically have until June to pick their housing, so it's possible that we might not know anything until June," Fircak said.

A spokesperson for Point Park told KDKA-TV that the changes are due to a surge in enrollment, unlike other universities across the country experiencing the opposite.

They said in part, "This approach is important for supporting students early in their college experience," and that they "expect very little campus housing to be available for juniors and seniors, so [they] are encouraging upper-class students to plan for off-campus housing rather than wait for a university assignment."

The spokesperson added that it won't impact financial aid.