NIU housing officials are to be commended for the handling of their last-minute decision to convert the third floor of Gilbert Hall back to student housing.

A decision to close the third floor and possibly turn it into office space was announced last March. However, when the number of students requesting housing jumped up by 300 from last year, officials changed their minds.

This could have caused a great annoyance for the students who lived on the third floor last year. These students were originally told they had to move off the floor, and it would have been an injustice to have told them to move and then later reopen the floor to different students.

During the summer, housing officials contacted last year’s third-floor residents and gave them the option to change their fall housing arrangements and move back to the floor.

While housing handled this situation well, some study seems to be needed to avoid similar situations in the future. As in previous years, 190 students will start the fall semester in temporary housing while at the same time more than 200 students will not have roommates because NIU offered them the option of a single room. Officials have said they will keep their promise of single rooms to these students.

While NIU did a good job handling the unanticipated increase in students requesting on-campus housing, it appears that some research is needed to determine if such a situation can be avoided.