Fuel prices may be part of interest in dorm life
The University of Southern Mississippi will keep open a residence hall it had planned to close. And Mississippi State University has taken rooms once reserved for overnight renters and filled them with students.
As the start of fall semester approaches, some universities say housing is full or nearing capacity and exceeding expectations. MSU won't say how this year's number of residents compares to last year's. But there is one factor that has the potential to drive growth in dormitory living at all campuses: the economy.
"We saw a slight increase in the number of upperclassmen who wanted to live on campus," said Lorinda Krhut, director of student housing and residence life at the University of Mississippi. "I think it's because of the gas prices, especially if they were commuting from 50 miles away. A lot of students who normally would have commuted may have decided to stay on campus rather than pay the gas prices for going back and forth."
Gas prices this summer flirted with, and in some cases exceeded, $4 a gallon. Last month, the U.S. Department of Transportation estimated that during the first five months of this year, Americans drove 29.8 billion fewer miles than they did during the same period last year. For some students, living on campus rather than buying gas for a daily commute may be a money-saving option.
Ole Miss has room for 3,600 students in residence halls, and Krhut estimates its buildings are about 95 percent full. About 2,500 of those spaces have been assigned to freshmen.
Housing officials won't know exactly how many students they'll have in residence halls until school starts. But as the summer disappears, housing directors are making room for more students.
"We're 98 to 99 percent full in almost every building," said Chris Crenshaw, director of residence life at USM. "In fact, we've got a waiting list for upperclassmen. I have not historically had that problem with upperclassmen."
An increase in freshmen women forced the university to do an about face on its decision to close Elam Arms, a building that historically housed men.
"We looked at our numbers the last of June, the first of July, and we had 300 freshmen women who did not have a place to live," Crenshaw said.
USM is up about 200 students and, given that students show up without having made arrangements, Crenshaw is expecting even more students to apply to live on campus in the next couple of weeks.
It's not uncommon for housing to appear to be full before residence halls open. However, space slowly becomes available during the first couple of weeks of school as administrators re-rent the rooms of students who didn't show up.
"We're bursting at the seams," said Ann Bailey, director of housing and residence life at MSU, where there is room for nearly 4,000 students in housing. "We have several people on waiting lists."
Bailey would not provide numbers.
Since 1993, MSU has used Herbert Hall for conference housing, rooms guests could rent at a nightly rate of less than $50. Because of demand, students have been assigned to live there during the semester. Some students were assigned to Herbert last year but were moved into other residence halls as officials re-rented the rooms of no-shows.
The outcome likely will be different this year.
"There is a great chance people will be in Herbert all year," Bailey said.
Requiring freshmen to live on campus will generate a need for more rooms, but that may be only a slight increase, given that more than 90 percent of freshmen historically have roomed on the Starkville campus.
Not every school has seen a big spike in housing requests. Last week, Jackson State University had assigned around 74 percent of its rooms. Vera Jackson, director of residence life at JSU, said she hasn't seen an increase in students who live within 50 miles seeking housing. Like officials at other schools, Jackson expects more requests for rooms to come in between now and when classes start Aug. 22.
Housing at public universities can range from $1,500 a semester to just more than $3,000 a semester, depending on the campus and the dorm. Given the many who live in apartments have roommates with whom to share expenses, it's difficult to argue that living on campus is always cheaper.
Crenshaw also attributes growth on his campus to marketing the advantages of on-campus living to students and parents. Off-campus apartments, he pointed out, typically don't have staff members who check on students they haven't seen in a few days or provide educational programming. Those who live on campus are encouraged to build relationships with residents in their buildings, a task that might introduce them to a more diverse group of friends than being in an apartment would.
It's this staff-resident relationship Crenshaw and other housing officials tout when promoting dorm life. Housing staff members also share research that says students who live on campus have higher grade point averages, something that might help them get better jobs.
"And because of the social skills acquired from living in a very diverse community like that, (residence hall students) are very successful in their profession when they graduate," Crenshaw said.