Page 8 - College Planning & Management, April/May 2019

8
As we do each year, College Planning & Management recently surveyed college and university housing administrators to learn about the state of their facilities, what challenges they are facing, what the trends are in new facilities, and what improvements they would like to see in their residential life programs and accommodations. Here are some results and observations from that survey.
By Shannon O’Connor
CAMPUS HOUSING: Back to Basics
Much has been written in the past decade about the “amenities arms race” in campus housing facilities, as colleges and universities increased the wow factor of residence halls in order to aid in recruiting and retaining students. Adding swimming pools, cable TV, movie theaters, housekeeping services, high-end furnishings, and more in order to create luxury hotel-like spaces made good first impressions on potential students and their families, but all these add-ons came at a financial cost, both to the institutions as well as the students themselves.
The amenities arms race appears to be slow- ing down as enrollment has also slowed, and more students who are looking for economy rather than luxury are turning to less-expensive off-campus living spaces. Also, those living on campus are more cost-conscious and focused on the features of housing that matter most to them—most notably privacy and WiFi—and are willing to settle for fewer frills if their room comes with a lower price tag.
Jordan Gatewood, AIA, LEED-BD+C, principal for Mackey Mitchell Architects in St. Louis, confirms this trend.
“The new generation of students (and their parents) are more value-driven because they have lived through the Great Recession,”
he says. “These students are said to be more practical and more risk-averse in their decision
making. Couple that with the increasing costs of higher education; it doesn’t bode well for overly amenitized housing projects, which typically come with a high rent.”
With these trends noted what is it, then, that today’s students want—or more likely, expect— in a residence hall?
According to a majority of this year’s CP&M survey respondents, the top two expectations incoming students have for on-campus housing is privacy and the very best WiFi. “Privacy,” “private rooms,” and “private bathrooms” were mentioned far more often than safety, low/ reasonable cost, or modern amenities. Despite
a trend in recent years for the inclusion of com- munity spaces to encourage social interaction, shared learning, and collaboration in residence halls, the perception is that students want to and expect to be alone (with their web-connected devices). One survey respondent summed it by observing that incoming students expect “sepa- ration from real people, access to Internet.”
Gatewood sees this as well. “Almost all the institutions we are working with express a need for more single-bedroom units,” he confirms. “Singles are desirable for sophomores who may want to remain on campus or are required to live on campus, as many schools are implementing two-year live-on policies. Single bedrooms are attractive for the increased privacy, but singles
WEBCPM.COM / APRIL/MAY 2019