WSU Shifts Housing Plans To Apartments Consultant Recommends Change Of Emphasis
At the suggestion of a private consultant, Washington State University is dramatically scaling back plans for new student housing while shifting its immediate attention from a new residence hall to apartments.
In a report released Thursday, Ira Fink and Associates Inc. of Berkeley, Calif., concludes the university should build spaces for a total of 1,200 new beds by the year 2004. That’s nearly half the number a WSU housing committee recommended in a report earlier this year.
The Fink report also suggests placing a priority on 300 new units of apartment-like housing by the fall of 1998. WSU was considering 600 units of residence hall housing.
The new housing plan is likely to be closely scrutinized by local real estate developers, who often complain of operating in a market heavily influenced by the university.
Sallie Giffen, WSU’s vice president for business affairs, said Fink made its estimates by using a more flexible and conservative “market demand” approach, “so we’re not building in advance and anticipating and hoping that we fill these spaces.”
Fink figured the university can accommodate a sudden surge in on-campus students by quickly converting single apartments to doubles for the short run, Giffen said. WSU then can build new housing in as little as two years, she said.
In its earlier estimates, WSU simply was figuring it would house half of its students while the enrollment of the so-called baby boom echo leapt to 23,700 - an increase of 50 percent - by the fall of 2005. That formula had the university planning to build 2,330 new beds in the next 10 years.
Fink uses the same enrollment projections but bases its estimates on past housing preferences. For example, Fink’s analysis showed that 10 percent of WSU’s students don’t even live in Pullman.
And while freshmen are required to live in university-approved housing, 60 percent request university housing after their freshman year.
Fink notes that residence halls have not filled for several years but university apartments are in high demand and often have waiting lists. As a result, the report recommends building additional shared apartments as a “first increment” in the university’s housing plan.
Fink also based its recommendations on feedback from a variety of focus groups and a survey of 2,500 students.
Respondents said their most important criteria in choosing a residence were a quiet place to sleep, a place to be alone, low cost and a quiet place to study.
Other details from the survey - like the fact that half the students own their own computers - will be a factor in the types of amenities the university offers, Giffen said.
, DataTimes