Housing discount offered to returning on-campus students

Students returning to live on the University of Toledo campus next year will be saving 25 percent of the cost of living in a dorm room.

The Office of Residence Life is working with the Office for Student Affairs to offer returning students a discount on the cost of living; however, some requirements do apply. To qualify for the discount, a student must be returning from last year, must be in good financial standing and must have a minimum 2.0 GPA.

“Any student that’s in good academic standing that lived in a residence hall this year can come back next year at a 25 percent discount. One thing’s important: first come, first serve basis,” said Kaye Patten Wallace, senior vice president for student affairs.

The discount applies to both semesters, both fall 2015 and spring 2016. While the discount covers the room rate, students will still have to purchase a meal plan and pay the $100 housing deposit as well.

Patten Wallace said the idea is to increase the number of students housed on campus.

“We also want to recognize students and student needs, in terms of financial aspects, financial benefits to students,” she said. “We think it’s a win win. It helps us fill our housing, at the same time, helping students meet their needs.”

Michelle Lettman, a first-year majoring in business, said the initiative is a good idea, although she personally lives at home.

“I think that [the discount] would make it so students come back,” Lettman said. “Because a lot of students, for them, a big game-changer is living on campus, because I know after the first semester people can’t afford to live on campus after that, and they live far away, so I think it would be worth it.”

The exact cost of the housing initiative has not yet been determined; Virginia Speight, director of residence life, said they will not know how much money each student saved and how much it will cost UT until fall 2016.

“We’re not looking at it as being a financial burden. We really are looking at the benefits that our students are going to gain from it,” Speight said.

Patten Wallace said every year there is a certain budgeted percentage for students in residence life, but no definite numbers as of now. She said the flat rate of rooms will likely increase, but it will be no more than around 3 percent.

“When we project our housing occupancy, we budget at a certain percentage,” Patten Wallace said. “And so we expect, if we budget and fill at that percentage, then we’re able to cover our expenses and generate the revenue we need to keep housing going.”

Speight said there are benefits to living on campus, including being closer to classes and being in a community of other students.

“All those positive things that you hear, statistically that students do better that live on campus,” Speight said. “They’re more engaged, more connected, seem to be more focused.”

Brock Whalen, a first-year majoring in business, said he might have considered living on campus if he’d known about the discount.

“Maybe, potentially,” Whalen said. “But I mean, it’s kind of hard to beat living at home for free.”

The Office of Residence Life offered this same discount to students two years ago. During the 2013-2014 school year, a 25 percent discount was offered to freshmen who maintained a 2.5 GPA by the time they were academic sophomores.

Speight said housing numbers did increase during that period. From 2012 to 2013, the numbers fell from 3109 students living on campus to 2917. However, in 2014 the number rose to 3104.

According to Patten Wallace, the last time the university did the 25 percent discount, it “did not significantly impact our revenue.” However, she said the conditions of the discount are very different this time because the target group is broader than before and the time period is longer.

“We saw students take advantage of [the discount]. The difference this time is before, we identified students who were at a higher GPA,” Patten Wallace said. “This time, again, what we looked at were students who come to us and said they’re having financial difficulty in terms of paying.”