At the semester's onset, 744 dorm rooms at MSU were overbooked. That means 2,232 students were inconvenienced - some for a day, some still, all while the university tries to figure out what to do with these extra students.

Part of the problem of overbooked dorm rooms can be contributed to a significantly larger amount of students attending MSU this year than anticipated. However, it is not the students' fault that dorm rooms are overbooked. This problem can be attributed to poor planning on the part of University Housing. Housing officials need to work out better plans and a better forecasting system to accommodate these influxes.

The overcrowding reflects poorly on the university. Almost 10 percent of the incoming freshman class was troubled by this poor planning. It is a rude welcoming to these incoming students, who could be considered one of the university's best marketing tools. Prospective students may see this as an undesirable possibility. If this trend of overcrowding continues, it stands to turn more students away.

As a solution to this problem, MSU officials should look to this overflow as an opportunity to become more academically selective in their admissions process. This situation is a good platform for creating a more academically competitive university at large.

Also, plans are allegedly in the works for yet another dorm to be built in the Brody Complex. Hopefully, these plans will be seen through to completion. A new dorm would solve most of the overcrowding problems, as long as the university doesn't increase its admissions numbers with the increase in housing spaces.

Consequences of the problems with planning in University Housing should not be dealt out to its residents. Poor forecasting on their part does not necessitate an emergency on the part of inconvenienced students.