WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) – Move-in day is almost here. However, at UNC-Wilmington, demolitions, renovations, and expansions are in full swing.

“I am very satisfied with the changes we’ve made,” Chancellor Aswani Volety said.

The upgrades come after high enrollment. As of Thursday, UNCW is just 30 students shy of its goal of 2,720 full-time, first-year students.

The Board of Trustees discussed plans to house over 5,000 freshmen and sophomores, who are required to live on campus.

The big problem, there are more students than space.

Chancellor Volety says every student will be taken care of.

“Even though we are short a few beds, there’ll be some movement in the students. Students don’t show up, they drop out, but, I’m very confident that all the students will have beds come fall,” Chancellor Volety said.

Leaders with housing and residence life say 146 students will be housed in converted study rooms and lounges.

For more space, the university contracted Plato’s Lofts, an apartment building down the street in a first for the university.

Student body president Skylar Stein says it’s a win-win.

“Speaking with students from last year, the students that were in the overflow housing they actually preferred it. We had a difficulty actually getting them out of that overflow housing because it’s typically bigger rooms,” he said.

But these makeshift changes could soon be a thing of the past.

As the school’s largest residence hall, Galloway, is being replaced by a new dorm that’s set to open within the next five years.

“We’ve kind of planned out over the next five to ten years to make sure that all the students we are recruiting will have beds and they’ll have a great experience,” he said.

To see UNCW’s full master plan, you can click here.

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