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UMass is becoming terribly overcrowded. When the school got rid of affirmative action, they had to maintain the same race ratios, so they increased the size of the freshman class by about 30%. At the same time, the retention rate has gone from 50% to 80%. Four years of that have left the dorms stuffed. There is no housing at any price off campus (70% of undergrads live on campus), and the Greek houses are stuffed. So every space in the dorms with a door that locks has been converted into a room- lounges and offices and such. At the beginning of last semester, there were even people living in local hotels at university expense.
The solution is that this year, they're cutting the size of the freshman class down to about 50% of last years size. It means the race ratios will be shot to hell, but there's nothing else to be done.
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