Some Montclair Students Call Bloomfield Campus Home

More than 50 Montclair State University residential students are living on the Bloomfield College of Montclair State University campus this fall. The majority moved into Bloomfield’s Schweitzer Hall on September 15, 2023, following a greater-than-usual student residential housing waitlist at Montclair. 

Serving as one of the merger’s first – and more visible – campus integration initiatives, the idea came about after Montclair reached its fall 2023 housing capacity of 5,069. All signs point to the number of Montclair students being housed on the Bloomfield campus continuing to grow.

“Our student housing waitlist nearly tripled this year,” says Dawn Meza Soufleris, vice president for Student Development and Campus Life at Montclair. “We had a high returner retention rate and very low no-show numbers, which together reflect the growing number of students who want to attend the University and have a residential experience.”

The University offered nearly 200 students on a housing waitlist for the Montclair campus the opportunity to reside on the Bloomfield campus, where rooms were still available. 

“We are thrilled to have been able to work together with Montclair to house these students. In addition to meeting the needs of the students, this collaboration put into practice exactly the type of efficiency we envisioned developing through the merger of our two campuses,” said Bloomfield College Chancellor Marcheta P. Evans. “It is very exciting to see the fruit of our conjoined community, and we are looking forward to continuing to identify these types of opportunities that expand efficiency at both campuses.”

“We have received very positive feedback from both the students and their families. From the exceedingly warm welcome they received on move-in day, to their comments regarding the beauty of the campus, everyone seems very happy,” says Soufleris. “We expect interest from Montclair students in living on the Bloomfield campus to continue to grow. We are already receiving new inquiries from students who are hearing from their peers about the great experience they are having living on the Bloomfield campus. This is a win-win all around.”

This fall, Bloomfield’s Schweitzer Hall also became home to the University’s American Council on Education (ACE) Fellow, Mark Allman, a top administrator from Merrimack College in North Andover, Massachusetts, who is taking part in this prestigious higher education leadership development program. Rashid Ahmed, Montclair’s inaugural dean of the new College for Community Health, is also being housed in a residence on the Bloomfield campus.

The merger that created Bloomfield College of Montclair State University took effect on July 1, 2023.

Story by Rosa Mulryan, director of college communications, Bloomfield. Photo by University Photographer Mike Peters.