Expansion at Ole Miss - Students voice opinion on enrollment and expansion of campus

As enrollment numbers at the University of Mississippi continue to increase, students are beginning to realize that campus may be in need of some expansive efforts in order to accommodate the growing student body.

With more than 21,500 students, Ole Miss has the highest enrollment in Mississippi. There are many reasons why students are drawn to Ole Miss, one being how nice the campus is, but after years of growth certain aspects of the campus are starting to seem outdated and underdeveloped.

"When I got here as a freshman, there was only 18,000 students," said now senior John Allen Brown "at that time things like parking just weren't and issue like it is now." With the new parking garage to be completed in August 2014, more than 200 parking spaces with be added, but there are a number of people who don't believe that it will be enough to keep up with the growth of student enrollment.

Student Union (top) Lamar Hall (Left) Commuter Parking Lot (Right)

"I've seen how fast space can fill up when there's a rise in the number of student's, just in the time that I've been here," said sophomore Taylor Gurley "it gets to the point where I'm leaving an hour before my class just so I don't have have to walk all the way across campus."

Other than parking there are certainly other parts of campus that students feel need to be renovated in some way. The Student Union is one of them.

"After seeing what they've done with [Lamar Hall], I think that it shows new buildings son't have to be built, and that the university can renovate what we already have to bring everything up to date." said Junior, Jose Garcia. The Union is a centralized place on campus and houses many of the dining establishments, especially during the long construction of the Johnson Commons dining hall.

"Most of the time, I don't even bother going to the union in between classes because I know how long the lines are going to be," said sophomore Brandon Waite "it just doesn't seem like theres enough places to eat for the amount of people in there at one time." Especially around lunch time, lines are typically wrapped around the entire food court area of the union and seating is equally as limited at most times. The facility planning department has placed "union renovation" on their current projects page on their website but there is no calendar along with it.

There is clearly a plan in place for the University's future and the students that will make up the student body, but the question that remains is how will enrollment numbers continue to rise and potentially make these plans obsolete before they are even acted on?