If you think the battle is over once you get accepted into a university, think again. The battle is just beginning.
The players: administration and students.
The issue: housing.
What do the students want? What does the administration provide? A search for a happy medium continues with raising costs and renovations. A look into Saint Louis University, Creighton University, Georgetown University and Washington University will provide an outlook as to the different battle plans and policies.
Students need affordable, yet adequate housing, especially when you consider the raise in tuition costs and cost of living. Campus housing plans don’t always live up to expectations, and miscommunication between the sides can cause even more frustration.
“The average cost for room for freshmen this year was $3,226,” stated Sue Mathey in Creighton University’s Residence Life Department. “Our costs usually increase about 3 percent to 4 percent yearly.”
The gap is wide between Creighton’s yearly increases and the increase that recently greeted SLU students. Housing rates will increase an average of 16.4 percent for the 2001-2002 school year. This is an increase of an average $567 per year. New renovations have been and are in the process of making housing at SLU a better quality, but the cost has many SLU students considering off-campus housing.
Another campus that has recently finished major reconstruction and renovation is Washington University. This university has 22 residence buildings, which have single, double and triple rooms, in addition to suites and apartment complexes. Small-group housing will be ready this fall.
Policies on campus housing differ from university to university. One question to consider is the policy on required campus living. Many universities require freshmen and often sophomore students to live on campus.
Creighton University students are challenging the administration to change the policies regarding check-in and visitor policies in their residence halls. Their policies are less restrictive than SLU’s, but students are asking the administration for more control over this policy.
If you are interested in new and modern buildings, complete with community space and activities, Washington University can provide just that. But that, as expected, will come at a high cost
Plenty of community space is available at both Creighton University and Georgetown University. Both also have policies similar to SLU regarding security and rules on visitors, providing a safe environment.
Overall, if you are interested in a variety of rooms to choose from and well-maintained residence halls, SLU is the right university for you. But this variety and neatness comes at the cost of rising housing costs and a lack of community and study space within the halls. Currently, SLU’s housing costs are relatively average and improvements are continually being made to the halls.
The high cost of learning
College is not cheap. Tuition and housing costs are on the rise.
The least expensive housing plan for the current 2000-2001 school year at Saint Louis University was a quadruple room in Reinert for $2,580. This is just the cost of housing; a meal plan must also be purchased. The least expensive plan, a five-flex meal plan, would cost an additional $2,700. This brings the total cost for the least expensive room and board at SLU to $5,280 for the current school year.
With the new increase of housing costs, a quadruple in Reinert with a five-flex meal plan for this next academic school year will increase from $5,280 to $5,740, an increase of $460.
With the new increase, a double in Griesedieck will change from $3,120 to $3,650 per year, an increase of $530. Residents in one-bedroom, two-occupant Marchetti apartments with a balcony will pay an additional $690, an increase of 17 percent.
A housing crunch last fall forced the administration to make decisions about where to put students when all the rooms were filled. Residence halls have lost community space and spacious living because of this overflow of potential residents. This past fall, SLU’s Department of Residence Life moved from the lower level of Walsh Hall to the third floor of the Busch Memorial Center. The space created by this move was converted into bedrooms, resulting in 42 new spaces.
Walsh Hall was not the only residence hall affected by the housing crunch. The Greek community was relocated within DeMattias Hall. Chapter rooms were converted into bedrooms and the new chapter rooms replaced community space in DeMattias.
Freshmen were assigned to rooms in DeMattias, sometimes as many as five or more to a room.
There are 7,086 undergraduates at SLU and less than 50 percent of these students live on campus.
Even before the new rise in housing costs was announced, some SLU students decided to look to off-campus housing for the fall and many are likely to live off campus this next fall.
“I lived in Marguerite my first two years at SLU,” said SLU junior Brandie Geary. “I really loved living there, and I wish I could have continued to live on campus.
“I started looking at apartments in the area at the end of my sophomore year. Living off campus was a lot cheaper than living on campus, plus I am living in an apartment,” Geary continued. “It is a little inconvenient to drive or walk to my classes, but the cost of housing is just too much for a student to be able to afford, especially if the student isn’t getting any financial help from their family or from SLU.”
Many upperclassmen enjoy the comfort of living in an apartment on campus, but getting into these apartments can be difficult.
“I transferred here in the fall,” said Dave Schelp, resident of Marchetti East. “I didn’t know where I was going to live, so I just kept calling residence life to remind them about me. I was very fortunate to be able to get into the Marchetti apartments and I would recommend anyone trying to get an apartment to just always keep in contact with residence life.”
Inside, outside: Analyzing rooms
It is likely that every university will have its pros and cons. Some are a little nicer than others; some are more modern than others; and some offer the valuable college community experience that many students seek. A lot can be said about this community experience by what student housing has to offer.
“I stayed in a Walsh dorm room before deciding to come to SLU,” said future freshman Janine Zahrli. “I looked at many universities, including Illinois State University and Illinois Wesleyan, but SLU’s was definitely better.”
“I am very glad to know that my room will have air conditioning,” said future freshman Melissa Schleeper.
At Washington University, all the buildings in the South 40, the housing area of campus, are air-conditioned. Students have access to computer lounges, snack bars and cafeterias, student-run businesses, and game and meeting rooms. Approximately 3,500 undergraduate students live in the South 40.
Washington University’s newly designed South 40 is beautiful, classy and seems to have been designed with the students’ interests and needs in mind. The accommodations are varied, and all residence halls seem to be a good quality.
All Georgetown University residence halls have community rooms that students and their guests can use for studying, watching TV, small gatherings or hall meetings.
Freshmen dorms at Creighton University have been recently remodeled. Deglman Hall is a freshmen dorm that offers a wide variety of social and academic opportunities with a new lobby and floor lounges. The lower level of the building is complete, with a full kitchen, laundry facilities, study lounges and a chapel. Most of their other dorms offer kitchenettes and lobbies.
Project SLU2000 will give SLU an improved look by the time the projects are completed.
Projects in Reinert Hall that have or will be completed with SLU2000 include: refurbishing the walls; a renovation of the bathrooms; new floor tiling; new ITS wiring giving an internet hookup to every occupant; and renovations to the lobby, banquet rooms and dining rooms.
The Griesedieck complex will have air conditioning in every room; refurbished walls; new sinks, medicine cabinets, tiling and all new furniture on floors three through six.
According to Argyle Wade, associate director, it is the hope of residence life to have new desks and dressers in Notre Dame Hall; get all new furniture in the language houses; begin replacing old furniture in Fusz Hall; and to upgrade the lounge furniture in every building.
