Philander Smith College is in a bit of a pickle.
The historically black college in Little Rock saw an enrollment growth spurt this fall -- its first major increase since fall 2011 -- but it doesn't have enough room on campus to house all the students. The college had been working to stabilize its enrollment for about a year and budgeted for 650 students, but nearly 100 more than that showed up.
For the time being, the college is housing some upperclassmen at the La Quinta Inn & Suites in downtown Little Rock and at nearby apartments the college leased. Meanwhile, school administrators have been at the drawing board trying to find solutions for more on-campus housing.
"I don't even call it a growing pain," Philander Smith President Roderick Smothers said. "I call it a growing accommodation because that, in effect, is what we're doing. I think we have a vision that has been formed by our entire community of scholars, and right now we're just living that vision. And right now, that vision, it encompasses this growth."
Philander Smith isn't the first college to face a housing squeeze. Oftentimes, higher-education institutions deal with an influx at the beginning of the year and are able to whittle down the housing wait list after registrars determine which students can continue school. Schools that grow too fast also run into an on-campus housing problem.
For example, the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville has for the past two years converted study areas into temporary housing. This fall, the university has estimated its largest freshman class and had 17 students without permanent on-campus housing at the beginning of the semester. UA last built on-campus housing in 2013, adding 630 beds in two residence halls.
Arkansas Tech University in Russellville -- with an enrollment growth of 85 percent since 2004 -- has built two residence halls over the past decade with a combined capacity of 522, said school spokesman Sam Strasner. Even with the new residence halls, the university has had to enlist hotels and the Lake Point Conference Center, an off-campus property owned by the school, as overflow housing, he said.
When higher-education institutions use off-campus locations for temporary housing, they also place security and school staff members at those places for supervision and assistance, schools said.
Philander Smith has 80 students housed at the La Quinta at a rate of about $60 per day, Smothers said. About 20 students from Arkansas Baptist College, another historically black school in Little Rock, also are at the hotel.
The Arkansas Baptist students soon will move into on-campus housing as official enrollment counts -- made on the 11th class day -- draw near, said LaCresha Newton, the college's chief of staff.
Philander Smith has met with upperclassmen at the La Quinta to keep them informed on where they could or could not move, said Valencia Patton, 19, a student from Milwaukee studying business administration.
Patton and her roommate, Jessica Vallier, 20, of Houston, said the hotel stay was no different from being in a Philander Smith dorm.
"We still have the same schedules," Patton said. "We're still going to basically pursue our day like we would at any other time. We have shuttles. We have friends with cars. So it's not too much of a change other than the fact that we're, like, living in a place that we don't really live in."
The school also has worked to accommodate any unintended consequences of off-campus living, Vallier said. She said she was late to a class because of shuttle scheduling -- something Philander Smith has since fixed.
"It shows to me that they are working very diligently on our behalf," she said.
The college is on pace to have its second-largest enrollment in the past decade, with the highest count in fall 2005 with 785 students. In the past few years, the college had experienced a drop in enrollment and slow growth, according to the state Department of Higher Education.
Since Smothers started leading the school in January 2015, the college's board has directed him to stabilize that enrollment, he said. That has led to a strengthened enrollment-management team, more visits to high schools and more college fairs, he said. The college also has started a student-recruitment team.
"The other part of it around which we've been very intentional is to focus inwardly on Arkansas," he said. "Whereas previous administrations have been very strategic around out-of-state recruitment, we're still doing that. However, I've placed a great emphasis on Arkansas recruitment and especially right here in our own backyard, you know, some of the high schools here."
He added that Philander Smith has added new degree programs, including the School of Allied and Public Health and its first online degree program in criminal justice.
Of the estimated 750 students, nearly half are freshmen, he said. The school has about 400 available beds.
And Philander Smith, like many colleges and universities, requires freshmen to live on campus to get the new students more engaged and retain them. School officials prioritize the housing of freshmen on campus before upperclassmen.
"While we project and plan for growth, as you know, you can't start building new buildings until you get the growth and sustain the growth for a few years," Smothers said. "It's not a good business model to do otherwise. We had been having conversations about this growth, but we needed to realize it.
"The 650 based on what we currently have, with a few small shifts, we could accommodate. But when we got beyond that number is when we started worrying a little bit. And then as that number grew and the deadline started passing for certain things, we said, 'Oh, we have a housing problem.'"
The college turned to the city to help brainstorm ideas for permanent housing and has pitched an idea to put six temporary housing units, with six bedrooms each, on a lot on Chester and 16th streets. The college will place a gate or a fence around the property -- to be called Panther Village -- for added security.
Professional staff members and an "around-the-clock" security guard also will be on-site.
The project is estimated to cost $1.2 million, he said.
"We've asked the city for two years," Smothers said. "And so, with another year of sustained growth at this level, we will begin the conversation with our board about building Suites C and D on our campus. The concept ... has already been approved. We just need to be able to sustain the enrollment growth."
The matter will go before the city board Tuesday.
"If the city does not pass, we go back to the drawing board," he said. "However, I am optimistic that the city will support these students who are residents in this community."
Metro on 09/04/2016