FAYETTEVILLE — For the first time, the University of Arkansas will force hundreds of its upperclassmen off campus this fall to make room for thousands of incoming freshmen, said Florence Johnson, UA housing executive director.
“We’re all in uncharted territory here,” Johnson said.
For the past five years, UA officials renovated old dormitories they thought undesirable into office space, closed or razed them. Now they are looking at reopening those dorms and possibly building a new residence hall to address the housing shortage.
That’s a change from the university’s initial plan tomeet the growing housing demand, according to UA documents.
Randy Alexander, then the housing director, said in 2007 he expected the university to meet on-campus housing demand through at least 2010. Last summer, Alexander conceded UA had a “housing crunch” when it had toput some upperclassmen in nearby apartments.
Last fall, UA opened about 300 additional rooms on campus, including reopening part of Bud Walton Hall, which had closed in 2004. UA opened space in dorms once slated to close or did close, including Gladson-Ripley Hall, which closed to students in the 2009-10 term, and Buchanan-Droke, half of which closed at the same time, according to a UA news release.
UA housing officials had hoped to phase these dorms out completely by fall 2008 because officials didn’t believe they appealed to students, but the housing shortage is worsening as enrollment grows.
“I’d have to say demand on housing is directly tied to enrollment,” Johnson said.
UA has seen a surge in the enrollment of first-time, degree-seeking freshmen, thanks in part to new state lottery scholarships the state handed out for the first time this academic year, and a lingering effects of the recession that started in December 2007, UA spokesman John Diamond said. UA saw the most growth it has had in 64 years, according to a news release.
Last fall, UA set a record for the number of full- and part-time freshmen enrolled at UA, up by 30.5 percent over fall 2009. UA reported 3,780 degree-seeking freshmen for fall 2010.
At the same time, the university continues its 1976 policy that requires freshmen to stay on campus, Johnson said. UA officials said they are making sure the freshman class has on-campus housing.
Last fall’s surge in enrollment caused a housing crunch, but UA officials didn’t finalize apartment housing for upperclassmen who wanted to remain on campus until July, just a month before school began.
For this year, UA hopes to finalize plans earlier for additional apartments to house upperclassmen near the campus, said David Davies, assistant vice provost for finance and administration in the student affairs division.
Eventually, all students who wanted to live on campus in fall 2010 got campus housing, Davies said, but that’s not likely to happen next fall when between 4,300 and 4,500 new freshmen arrive, Johnson said. About 90 percent of those freshmen will stay on campus, meaning freshmen will take up about 81 percent of UA’s dorm space, she said.
For the first time, current freshmen filled out applications between January and February for on-campus housing for next fall, Johnson said. After doling out space to freshmen and students with scholarships requiring oncampus living or who have night courses, campus work or lab requirements, about 800 students who had wanted on-campus housing were put on a waiting list, she said.
Johnson said her office winnowed the number of people on the waiting list by about 200 students by filling spaces left by students who changed their minds about living on campus, by contracting for rooms with nearby apartments and by opening space in old dormitories.
ADDRESSING THE NEED
UA officials have been meeting to discuss how to deal with a housing crunch on the Fayetteville campus in the near and long term, Davies said.
In the short term, UA will open another part of Bud Walton Hall, Johnson said. The new opening will add another 68 beds by this fall and is projected to cost about $2.4 million, she said. Officials only recently decided the dorm should remain residential when thousands of freshmen enrolled last fall, according to a UA news release from last year.
Davies said UA may reopen space in Wilson-Sharp Hall, another dormitory with space that had closed five to seven years ago.
The UA System board of trustees in January tentatively approved about $24 million in bonds for improvements to four dorms. That money would improve Futrall, Pomfret, Humphreys and Wilson-Sharp halls.
Other options UA officials are considering include reopening Hotz Hall as a dorm, Davies said. The hall was built as a dorm in 1964 and renovated into office space in 1998, according to the UA Campus Master Plan. If offices in Hotz can be moved and the dorm reopened by this fall, UA would have more than 400 additional beds for students, Johnson said.
UA officials also are considering building a dormitory that could include a dining hall, classrooms and parking to meet UA’s long-termneeds, Davies said. That dormitory, which could cost about $29 million, would add another 400-plus beds once it is completed in about four years, he said. No site has been selected.
The idea to build something new is in the very beginning stages of consideration, Davies said. Academic planners must look at possibly adding classrooms, parking and dinning areas for any new dormitory, he said.
“There are other issues that have to be considered with any expansion,” Davies said. “The campus works very hard to integrate residential and academic life.”
The most recent dorm built was Maple Hill in 2008. UA also built the Northwest Quadrant Residential Community, complete with 609 rooms, in 2004. Before then, the last dorm for students was Pomfret Hall, which was built in 1967.
While UA staff members consider options, interest among prospective students in attending UA continues to rise. About 2,000 out-ofstate parents and high school students toured the campus during their spring break last week , said Suzanne McCray, vice provost for enrollment services and dean of admissions. On Friday, about 400 visitors toured the campus, and many of those were sophomores or juniors inhigh school.
The number of visitors for the week of spring break was up by 18 percent over the same time a year ago and up by about 30 percent over the entire year, McCray said. Last fall, Chancellor G. David Gearhart told the board of trustees that the Fayetteville campus could have an enrollment of 23,000 in fall 2011, up from 21,406 last fall.
UA is riding a wave of increasing student enrollment, said Daniel Pugh, vice provost for student affairs and dean of students.
“This is a good thing for us,” Pugh said. “There are people excited about coming here.”
While upperclassmen are waiting to see if they can remain on campus next fall, prospective freshmen showed little concern about the housing shortage during a campus tour this month.
Alan Reidmiller made a trip from Allen, Texas, so his 17-year-old son Ben and four other high school boys could see the Fayetteville campus during their spring break. Most of the youths said they would be fine living off campus as sophomores.
“I look more at what the campus looks like, and if I’m going to have a good experience,” Ben Reidmiller said.
No parents have called McCray with concerns about housing, she said.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 03/28/2011