A report from the Faculty Senate Committee on Student Housing
April 26th, 2002
In our view, the University is facing an imminent crisis, one that will most likely impact our ability to attract and retain top students while offering them and ourselves the kind of community only available to a residential campus. To address this situation, we ask the Senate to contribute to and support a plan that will lead to the construction of a new student residence and the renovation or replacement of existing halls.
For a modern campus of its size, its residential character distinguishes The University of Oregon, and to our benefit. Students who live on campus have access to multiple and diverse campus events. Moreover, their proximity to one another makes it easier for study groups to form, conversations to continue, and intellectual life in general to continue beyond the walls of the classroom. In short, a residential campus has the potential to be an intellectually vibrant campus, one on which learning and living intertwines and reinforces one another.
The academic goals and programs of our University Housing Department strengthen the academic promise of our campus. Many resident halls focus upon shared interests (e.g. computing, outdoor activities, and music), several others house students participating in FIG’s, and each residence hall has a “Faculty-in-Residence” who provides added advising, sponsors and attends various programs (e.g. star gazing, paper writing workshops, and discussions concerning the possible existence of divinity), and, more generally, provides students with immediate access to faculty outside a classroom.
Unfortunately, due to small rooms, over-taxed communal bathrooms (some servicing 30 students), lack of storage, and a limited number of beds (we are currently unable to guarantee the entire freshmen class on-campus housing), students are increasingly seeking housing elsewhere, e.g. Duck Village. We thus agree with the conclusion reached by Anderson Strickler, a consultant hired by the University: we are in danger of losing our residential character. This is troubling. Not only does a diminishing residential population threaten the vibrancy of our academic community, but beginning students are most in need of the support and encouragement that University Housing offers. In order to retain them, we need to make on-campus housing as widely available and attractive as possible. The size, age, and character of our existing structures make this difficult, however. Among the existing halls, the newest was built in 1967 and Carson, our oldest, was constructed in 1947. To our minds, this suggests that those students currently housed at the University of Oregon are living in outmoded buildings. Moreover, because they can find more modern residences at rival institutions, our recruitment as well as retention efforts are being undermined. As the University Enrollment Management Council wrote: “Attracting high quality students is a goal of the university. Existing residence halls seriously detract from the goal.”
Recommendations:
It is the view of this committee that if the University is to [1] remain residential, [2] continue to compete with our peer institutions for the best students, [3] retain students, particularly during the first year, and [4] offer our students sufficiently modernized housing, we must build a new complex and renovate existing buildings.
We want to stress that we do not believe that a project of renovation will prove sufficient. First, renovation will require that students be housed temporarily housed elsewhere. Thus, the very project of renovation will require a new residence. Second, a new, fully modernized residence will help recruit students. Third, a new residence will provide Housing with further resources (e.g. residence hall classrooms and advising offices) for their growing and helpful learning-living programs.
Among these uncertain times, funding is a particularly pressing and vexing question. Nevertheless, it is our belief that the challenges facing housing are immense and grave. Moreover, since the ability of University Housing to attract and support students has a pronounced impact upon enrollment and retention, strong and concrete support for student housing residence life is less a remedy than an investment in our future. We thus believe that the construction of a new residence alongside the renovation of existing structures should be marked as a priority, even if this requires, as it most likely will, the University to dedicate to the project existing funds and/or gains from the next capital campaign.
In order to pursue a project of new construction and renovation, we ask that the Senate call for and contribute to a University Committee that, by the close of the 2002-2003 academic year, will develop a plan for the funding and construction of a new residence hall followed by the comprehensive renovation of existing structures.
Appendix:
Appended for your consultation are a number of reports upon which many of our remarks are based.