Ask Mr. Answer Person: "Does higher enrollment this fall at Luther mean more students will be living off campus?"

(Our story (http://www.decorahnews.com/news-stories/2015/09/11670.html) about Luther College's enrollment going up by 5 students this fall led to an e-mail from Jim):

From perspective of Decorah businessman, I am wondering what do Luther officials think caused the number of campus visits to increase so much?    And what will be the impact of higher enrollment on off-campus housing?"

The on-campus visits were a focus of the Luther Admissions Department during 2014-2015.  They believed that if they could get prospective students on campus, the odds improved that those students would attend Luther in the fall--and they appear to be right.

As for the question about off-campus housing, we checked with Luther's Kris Franzen, who's in charge of off-campus housing permits.  She told us, "The process for off campus housing takes place in the spring of each year for the following fall.  Therefore, at this time the process to live off campus for this year is complete and we do not anticipate releasing additional students off campus for this academic year.  The increase we have in students has come from our first-year class and since those students are housed in first-year halls it does not have an affect on upper class housing on campus this fall."