University of North Dakota - new housing?
A particular concern at the University of North Dakota is housing. With the university's enrollment continuing to rise each year, and the number of residence halls and apartments remaining static since 1985 (the last construction of a residence hall was Swanson Hall, although the former Ramada Inn was purchases in 2002 and converted to Dakota Hall) there has been a need for new housing on the campus. Unfortunately, UND's Housing Office chose to go with a rather extravagant enterprise for adding new residence halls while sacrificing family housing.
According to the UND Housing Office Housing Master Plan, the flat-top and split level units that were demolished in Fall of 2005 were to be replaced by a 400-person "apartment-style" residence hall (p.22). Those plans have since changed to only have a 270-person residence hall (GF Herald Online). Something that was inaccurate in the Herald article is that the statement "the new residential building... will include a combination of two-bedroom, four-bedroom and efficiency apartments" refers to apartments, when there won't be apartments; instead, the units discussed were "dorm" suites within the residence hall.
Interesting enough, the Housing Office cleared out family housing options to increase housing for single students without providing any additional family housing to replace the demolished units. If you look through the Master Plan, you'll find that the Housing Office plans to continue removing family housing, the next section being the State Street apartments (p.25). This coincides with a move by the Housing Office earlier in the Spring 2006 semester to eliminate the concept of married/family housing. Housing that was once dedicated to families has now been opened up to non-married, non-familial tenants, creating tensions within neighborhoods.
When you look at the progression of UND's housing initiative, one can clearly see that the university has no real desire to retain students that are not single. Married housing is being phased out and family housing is being eliminated. The comfortable arrangements that had been in place for families, such as open yard areas, playgrounds in an area surrounded by families, and general leaseholders that held at least a modest level of interest in their neighborhood, will be replaced by taller, more cramped buildings, reduced greenspace, and a less communal living environment for any children that happen to reside on campus with their parents.
According to the UND Housing Office Housing Master Plan, the flat-top and split level units that were demolished in Fall of 2005 were to be replaced by a 400-person "apartment-style" residence hall (p.22). Those plans have since changed to only have a 270-person residence hall (GF Herald Online). Something that was inaccurate in the Herald article is that the statement "the new residential building... will include a combination of two-bedroom, four-bedroom and efficiency apartments" refers to apartments, when there won't be apartments; instead, the units discussed were "dorm" suites within the residence hall.
Interesting enough, the Housing Office cleared out family housing options to increase housing for single students without providing any additional family housing to replace the demolished units. If you look through the Master Plan, you'll find that the Housing Office plans to continue removing family housing, the next section being the State Street apartments (p.25). This coincides with a move by the Housing Office earlier in the Spring 2006 semester to eliminate the concept of married/family housing. Housing that was once dedicated to families has now been opened up to non-married, non-familial tenants, creating tensions within neighborhoods.
When you look at the progression of UND's housing initiative, one can clearly see that the university has no real desire to retain students that are not single. Married housing is being phased out and family housing is being eliminated. The comfortable arrangements that had been in place for families, such as open yard areas, playgrounds in an area surrounded by families, and general leaseholders that held at least a modest level of interest in their neighborhood, will be replaced by taller, more cramped buildings, reduced greenspace, and a less communal living environment for any children that happen to reside on campus with their parents.
posted by Jeni.Ann | 1:06 PM
8 Comments:
I do have to have to ask, what's wrong with the transition to the orientation towards single students?
UND is a growing university that, if state population trends and seemingly limitless Federal support continues, will require a vast amount of new housing.
And since the majority of students are not married and do not have children, I think it logical that the university should cater to the market most in demand. Note also that marriage and child-bearing are growing obsolete in today's world. We're slowly becoming Western Europe. :)
But I do agree wholeheartedly that economy should have been preferred over quality. Those deep-pocketed students that can afford better will pay the extra dimes to own a home and turn it into an investment. And the vast majority of others I don't believe would mind slightly less luxurious accommodations.
I'm probably being too bold to say that these facilities will be "luxurious," but I believe that the state's obsession with higher education is leading them to spend more money than they should on projects that will have few economic positives. Sure, students will be buying alcohol and alcohol is taxed, but these students pretty well completely leave the state when they've graduated, and I don't believe pouring as much money as we are into UND will see any dividends - except to Grand Forks and Fargo, while the rest of the state is taxed to death to support our two college towns (please not the hyperbole).
not to be picky but i just wanted to correct your statement about the hotel purchace. It was the Road King North that was purchased and not the Ramada Inn. Not really important but i just wanted to correct that.
Very interesting article. Student housing is, I believe, a long-neglected issue by UND. Do you have any stats on ratios of single/ married students? Is there truly a crunch for married housing?
I highly doubt that the University has some underhanded plan to try to eliminate married students from the campus community.
I was a little irritated last year when the married students who lived in the one-story "huts" where this project is going up put up such a stink over being told they would have to move. UND gave them many months notice and a project like this has been talked about for years so it really should have come as no suprise to these married students that the University would eventually want to remove the old buildings which were a TERRIBLE waste of space and unattractive and replace them with denser and much more modern buildings.
UND doesn't have endless room to grow...we are currently pretty much ringed by neighborhoods. Unless UND wants to spend oodles of money to buy up houses north and east of campus (which, by the way, would also eliminate housing often used by married students) there is no direction to grow but up and by making wiser use of the space we already have on campus. UND can't stop growing just for the convenience of a few married students.
By the way, welcome to the Grand Forks blogging community. We seem to have started something very contagious here...
I am a bit disheartened to learn of the demise of the married student housing on campus.
My parents began commuting to UND in the fall of 1986 from rural ND and my family moved into the State street apartments in the spring of 1987. I was 10 years old. We lived there for eight years, and moved shortly after I graduated high school and my parents recieved their Masters degrees.
So basically, I was raised on campus. The years we spent there, all the Christmas mornings, my younger twin sisters learning to ride their bikes in the same parking lot I and my brother learned to drive in. All those memories could be torn down in favor of multi-floor dormatories where the greatest memories made there will be "the time (insert name here) spilled the bong all over my futon". I'm not calling single students irresponsible fools, but I was a single student in college once too, and I'm more than a little bit familiar with the lifestyle!
The bottom line is that my parents could not afford a house in GF with tuition and four kids to take care of. Without family housing, my parents would never have come to UND, my siblings and I would not have had the opportunities we were blessed with, and I would probably be working in a sugarbeet plant somewhere in the boonies instead of living in Florida.
I hope UND reconsiders and puts family housing back in the plans for the future of the institution.
UND is simply supplying the sort of housing that is in demand. For several years, there wasn't enough room in the residence halls for students, yet there was so much space in married housing that some of my friends were offered apartments in those buildings. The buildings that were torn down weren't in great shape, and they were an eyesore. Those of us in the residence halls called those buildings "the campus ghetto."
By the way, I have married friends, and they're currently looking to get off campus because they feel that the married housing isn't a comparable value to what they could get for the same money off-campus.
You know, I didn't notice it, but I'm glad you did.
This does show a major resistence to married households, and considering the increasing number of atypical students at UND, it would logically make sense that married housing's demand would at least stay static. Mind you, I'm not entirely certain what percentage of the atypical students are married, but I'm willing to bet a fair number.
And grandforksguy, I completely understand why people would not wish to leave the unattractive "huts", no matter how much notice they were given. I'm quite sure everyone here understands what a pain in the nalgas it is to move: multiply that by 100 and you can figure out what it's like to move with children, especially small children.
In todays economy, older people are HAVING to go back to school: they either need to get a degree, or their old degree is obsolete, or any number of things that coerce them back into university life. And I believe that we should support people who are getting an education in any way we can.
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