After the debacle in 2015 when the University of Missouri embraced political correctness, allowing flimsily-supported racism charges to go unchallenged, resulting in the resignation of the university’s president, enrollment plunged. As The Daily Wire has reported, “Many parents and alumni responded by refusing to contribute money to the public university. For example, donations to its athletics department dropped 72% last year.”
Now the University of Missouri is attempting to recoup some of its massive losses by renting dorm rooms to football weekend visitors. As The Columbia Tribune reports, “The university has closed seven residence halls with 1,461 beds. During the UM Board of Curators meeting Thursday, MU Vice Chancellor for Operations Gary Ward said a website is available for people to reserve two-bedroom, four-bed suites for $120 a night.”
Ward told the Tribune that he didn’t think local hotels would mind, asserting, “My understanding, and this would have to be verified with them, is the hotels are full anyway, so we won’t be competing on game days. We could be competing with out-of-town hotels.”
Amy Schneider, director of the Columbia Convention and Visitors Bureau, which is completely funded by room taxes paid by Columbia hotels, said, “I will probably have hotels contact me and talk to me. I’ll need to contact Gary Ward to get more info and talk to city hall and see what they know about it, to see what can and can’t be done.”
Ward noted that the university’s current backlog is $748 million, increasing $35 million per year.
From the beginning of the 21st century to 2015, Mizzou’s student body increased from roughly 23,000 students to 35,448 in 2015. But now, roughly 1,000 more beds are available in residence halls than incoming freshmen.