By the Spring 2026 semester, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s Housing department will be ending its contract with the hotel Wingate by Wyndham.
Wingate has accommodated overflow student housing since the Fall 2024 semester.
This news was shared initially in a town hall meeting that was held on Oct. 1, 2025, where Interim President Dr. Jamie Hebert shared with University leaders, administration and staff the University’s several cost-cutting plans to reduce the $25 million deficit.
In Fall 2024, census day observed an astounding incoming class of 3,064 students.
Regarding housing for these students, the website for the Office of University Housing and Residential Life requires “all unmarried, full-time first-time freshmen students, regardless of age or emancipation status, to live in campus residential halls as long as space is available.”
It was quickly realized that there was not enough space available to accommodate all the students.
Some criteria for exemptions exist, such as students residing in a property within a 50-mile radius of campus, students with certain disabilities or students who are married by the first day of their fall classes.
Nonetheless, the lengthy waitlist for housing was a concern as students from outside of the state, or even outside of the country, have to live on campus in order to attend their classes.
Two hotels were booked out by the University as satellite locations for housing: Wingate by Wyndham and the WoodSpring Suites.
Wingate still, at the time of writing this story, houses 112 students, all of whom are first-time freshmen.
The WoodSpring Suites contract has already ended; residents were moved to on-campus housing in Spring 2025. Wingate is expected to follow suit for Spring 2026.
Dawn Miller, the director of Property Management for the University, explained where these students will be placed.
“I’m very confident that we will be able to place them in the residence halls…we have Bonin, Coronna, Baker, Agnes… those are the majority [freshman dormitories].”
Each dormitory houses around 450 students.
There is no work or renovations that need to be done to these rooms, and all rooms in these dormitories are being put to use, according to Miller.
These freshmen will be relocated into dormitories only; no spots in campus apartments are being used to house the Wingate students.
This process has been in the works, as Miller added that it was always the intention to bring these students back onto campus.
“…there’s so much programming, there’s so much engagement that happens within the residence halls and we truly feel that your first-time freshman need that engagement.”
There are many benefits to living on campus as a student.
Being directly at the University eliminates commute time and can allow a student to utilize more University resources and attend more campus events, which is an alluring offer for a freshman experiencing college life for the first time.
According to Miller, the average student at the University lives on campus for one to two years, a sizable chunk of the time it takes to get a four-year degree.
Students at the Wingate hotel will get priority for moving in Spring 2026. The number of housing spots that open up varies from semester to semester.
Usually, less spots open up going into the spring since less students graduate in the fall.
However, there are also less incoming freshmen in the spring.
“If there’s space available after we get those students on campus, then we will open up to new people wanting to come live on campus. But our freshmen are our priority.”
Miller assured that there should be enough room to move all 112 students at Wingate back to campus.
Now, the main reason behind the decision to end the Wingate housing contract with the University is financial. Booking out an entire hotel, or two hotels from when the WoodSpring Suites was still being used as housing, is expensive.
Also, parking is limited at these hotel lots; not every student even has a car to drive to and from Wingate and the University. So, there is a shuttle system entirely dedicated to driving back and forth from the Student Union to the Wingate hotel.
Between ending the contract with Wingate and the shuttle system to it, the University will save $900,000.