On Friday, Sept. 22, the Center for Student Engagement hosted an off-campus housing fair on PED Walkway. The fair was packed with students cramming into each booth as they listened intently to every detail, trying to decide which apartment complex would best fit their needs in the short amount of time they have to decide before lease signings for the next school year are due.

Despite UT’s attempts to provide students with access to affordable housing close to campus, many students are still disgruntled about Knoxville’s housing crisis and blame the university, like Juliana Stephan, a freshman studying neuroscience.

“Knowing that you have to have a lease signed by October for something that doesn’t start until August is stressful because if you don’t do it sooner than later, you’re kind of screwed over,” Stephan said.

UT is an old and landlocked campus with an exponentially growing population of students and Knoxville residents. This makes expansion and housing all the more difficult and expensive. Olivia Squires, a freshman studying music, believes that the rent prices for many apartments are too high for the quality of the complex itself.

“I feel like a lot of what’s going on in Knoxville, regardless of student housing, but kind of the housing market generally, is very predatory to young people,” Squires said. “And I’m not willing to pay for something that I know isn’t worth my money.”

A recent panel hosted by the Baker School of Public Policy and Affairs discussed the current housing crisis in Knoxville and pointed out that there has been a nearly 50% increase in rent costs over the past several years due to high demand for housing.

Despite this, there are some off-campus housing properties that are trying to make their complexes affordable and accessible to students.

Properties like The Heights offer a price tier system, which means that their complexes start from a lower rate, and then once a certain number of people sign in that tier, they close it and move to a different tier with higher rates.

This system can create a scramble, which is why they recommend signing leases as soon as possible.

Last year, many students worried so much about not finding a lease for the next school year that they camped overnight outside apartment complexes to ensure they would be able to sign a lease on launch day. To prevent this, many properties are moving their lease launches online.

Kayla Clabough, the community manager for The Standard, explained this new online process.

“This year, we are offering a VIP list, which will send out automatic communications up until our lease-launch date,” Clabough said. “That just tells people how they can apply and the easiest process to go about what the entire leasing process is going to look like.”

The recent housing panel at the Baker Center also pointed out potential solutions to the housing crisis such as the return of missing middle housing, which changes in zoning regulations have made difficult to build.

While students are worried about the housing crisis, they see the increased number of students at UT as one of the main problems and say decreasing the student population could help lower housing demand.

“The problem is just going to keep getting worse the more people they over-accept,” Squires said. “And they’re probably going to need to have a smaller class to have better resources for current students.”

UT’s acceptance rate plummeted nearly 30% for the 2023 admissions cycle going from an in-state acceptance rate of 71.2% in 2022 to 59.4% in 2023. The out-of-state acceptance rate dropped from 67.2% to 33.3%. The UT Admissions Board reported that they received 49,790 first-year applications as of Feb. 14, 2023. This is a 40.5% increase compared to the year prior.

Despite the statistical drop in acceptance at UT, the total enrollment for students for the fall 2023 semester is more than 35,000 — the largest class in UT’s history.

Many students argue that UT needs to lower the acceptance rate even more to help aid not only the housing crisis but also the parking crisis. This will help improve students’ overall experience.

Overall, this semester’s off-campus housing fair sought to provide general aid to  UT students finding housing. The one-on-one interaction with property managers and students provided both parties with feedback and information.

If you missed the fair or are looking for more information about off-campus housing, visit the Center for Student Engagement’s off-campus housing website.

Correction: A previous version of this article reported incorrect numbers about UT admissions.