How do you house the largest class of students at UK? University looks to new options in dorms
As the largest freshman class (again) enters the University of Kentucky, one question has (again) come up: Where are they going to live?
As university enrollment continue to increase each year, the number of students wanting to live on campus also grows. UK has more than 8,000 assigned on-campus beds this year, the most it has offered at one time, said Heath Price, associate vice president for partnerships at UK.
Price and Andrew Smith, assistant vice president for auxiliary services, said they try to use data to drive their decisions and choose “what’s in the best interest of students.”
“We want to make sure our students have a positive start to being a Wildcat,” Smith said. “This year compared to last year, or previous years, the expectations are still the same. They want to live on campus, which is a great thing. Emerging after a pandemic, that was a concern for us. But what we’re finding is that our students want to have a community and a sense of belonging, and that really starts with the fact that they’re living on campus.”
Housing and enrollment numbers continue to shift throughout the beginning of the school year as some students change their plans, but as of this week, there were more than 5,700 new students and 2,270 returning students planning to live on campus, Smith said.
UK is expecting between 6,400 and 6,500 freshman students this fall — meaning that up to 89% of first-year students could live on-campus.
Converting dorm rooms for the 23-24 school year
UK doesn’t turn away undergraduate students who apply for housing by the deadline, although graduate students may be placed on a waitlist if housing fills up. If there are not enough beds on campus, staff have to get creative, Smith said.
To prepare for higher numbers of students in dorms, UK is utilizing space in different ways. UK faced housing shortages last year, too.
UK is again converting multi-purpose rooms in dorms into living spaces, which ended up being popular with students, Smith said. They offer the same amenities as regular dorm rooms.
“That turned out really well last year, primarily because they’re a lot bigger,” Smith said.
UK also launched the TRI-IT pilot program for this fall, where two-bedroom, two-person suites were converted into three-person suites. One of the single beds in the suites was replaced with bunk beds, allowing an additional student to live in the room. All three students in the suite will share a bathroom.
Students who live in a TRI-IT suite will pay a discounted housing rate: $500 off for students in the single room, and more than $2,000 off for students in the double room, according to the housing website. But not every student who was assigned an alternate housing option was pleased, he said, adding that there have been a lot of conversations with parents and students who were expecting a more traditional dorm room.
Price said the housing staff had underestimated the number of returning students who would want to live on campus, meaning they had to look at several options for increasing the number of beds. Other options included offering off-campus housing for students, or converting older dorms on a short timeline.
“We didn’t know that the return numbers were going to be so high, and it caught us a little off guard,” Price said.
Kirsten Turner, vice president for student success, said UK looked at all the options and weighed them against some guiding principles: safety of students, price and the opportunity to live on campus. TRI-IT emerged as the best option for students, she said.
In two months, the dorms were converted with bunk beds and additional storage options, Price said. The dorms were built to be configured in multiple ways, like the converted multi-purpose rooms and three-bedroom suite set ups, but UK didn’t need to utilize those options until now.
“It’s not a problem that more students want to live on campus,” Price said. “We want them to live on campus.”
Turner said UK’s internal data indicates positive results for staying enrolled at the university, grades and a sense of belonging if a student lives on campus.
“It’s easier to get to class, it’s easier to access different resources, and in terms of time management, just being present,” Turner said. “Building out those kinds of opportunities, particularly in the first year, (is important). That said, we know that for lots of really good, valid reasons, we know that not everyone wants to, or is able to, or can live on campus.”
Looking into the longer-term housing plans, Turner said UK has begun discussing what can be done for upcoming, larger classes, but no decisions have been made yet about increasing campus housing.
What are students asking for in dorms?
Smith and Price said the student population and their needs have changed a lot in the past five years. Coming out of COVID, more students are hoping to live on campus, something UK was unsure would happen immediately after the pandemic, Smith said.
Technology is very important to students, they said. UK is “constantly doing upgrades” to Wi-Fi and technology in dorms, since students need up-to-date technology for their classes and assignments, Smith said.
Students are also asking for more study spaces and quiet rooms in dorms, where they can leave their dorm rooms but not have to leave the building for a place to study and complete assignments. UK has also changed laundry vendors this year, Smith said, which was something they regularly heard complaints about.
What does this mean for next year?
Though this fall semester hasn’t started yet, Smith and Price said they are already looking at options for next fall. If incoming classes continue to grow, so will the number of students seeking on-campus housing.
Price said they hope to have plans set in place sooner for the next school year than they did this year. Smith said they are also looking at options for potentially updating older residence halls, like Smith, Baldwin, Ingles and Roselle, which opened in 2005. Those dorms are suite-style, with four students living in two rooms that share a bathroom.
Working with a student intern in the housing office, UK has formed focus groups to get feedback on the future of housing.
“I want to make sure that what we’re doing is addressing the needs of the students now, as well as those in the future,” Smith said. “So we’ve been running some focus groups on ways we can improve the living spaces in those 2005 buildings.”
This story was originally published August 14, 2023 at 7:00 AM.