UW officials say dorm proposals fill a real need
11:20 PM 5/25/04
Karen Rivedal Wisconsin State Journal

Out-of-state students may benefit most from UW-Madison's plan to spend $110 million in the next four years building three new dorms, adding 845 beds by fall 2008. <

State law already requires that all resident freshmen admitted by March 15 get on-campus housing if they want it, and the university's existing stock of 6,669 beds is more than enough for that. The freshman class averages about 5,500 students per year, about 75 percent from Wisconsin. <

It's non-residents, who pay four times as much in tuition, who often are left out in the cold. Lacking the mandate of state law, non-resident freshmen get the scraps, and it's this unmet need - along with the smaller segment of resident students admitted after March 15 each year - that university officials are mostly talking about when they cite a shortfall of 700 beds per year. <

"We don't have enough room," Provost Peter Spear said. "We're turning away students and, fair enough, much of it's non-residents. But even if it's just for them, I think it's an entirely legitimate goal. A non-resident student who is paying $19,000-plus to come here wants to know that they can live in a residence hall that's nice." <

Under the university's plan, which is in the process of getting various state and local government approvals, two of the new dorms - on Park and Dayton streets - would add 1,025 beds by 2007. That would replace the 980 beds to be lost through the planned demolishing of Ogg Hall, a 1960s-era dorm officials said would cost more to modernize. <

The third project, at University Square, would add 800 new beds in 2008. The net number of new beds would drop to 755 after a planned remodeling of two other dorms in 2009 that would eliminate 90 beds. <

Spear argued that non-residents are a good investment for the university because they pay more than the cost of their education through their higher tuition, enabling residents to pay lower rates. In addition, none of the money earmarked for the new dorms comes from taxpayers - all university residence halls are supported by student user fees. <

And all students in dorms will pay higher rates for years to come to fund the new dorms. Students in the three new halls will pay the most, with annual room rates increasing about 51 percent, or from about $3,300 to $5,000. <

Emily Lecker, a member of a student advisory board for residence halls, said she and other board members supported the new dorms mainly because they will let the university offer more space on-campus to those who want it. <

"We were very convinced of the need," said Lecker, of Appleton, who will be a junior this fall. "I had a few friends who transferred but couldn't get housing. It was a very tough time for them. It was very scary for them not having someplace to live (initially)." <

For this fall, UW-Madison has more than 800 people on the waiting list for university housing - a number that has stayed constant for the last several years, Housing Director Paul Evans said. University residence halls also have opened their doors slightly above occupancy for the past five years, although that kind of "over-booking" is by design; because a small percentage of students always drop out or don't show each fall, some students are routinely housed in temporary quarters for a few weeks until spaces open up. <

UW-Madison also paid the Washington-based student housing consulting firm Brailsford & Dunlavey a fee of less than $5,000 to do an independent assessment, Evans said. <

The company, described as the largest such firm in the country, came up with a similar conclusion, although B&D suggested the university add even more, according to the report released this month. <

Madison businessman Steve Brown, who owns five of the six private residence halls available to students, said UW-Madison shouldn't add more beds. He says the extra beds will come at the expense of private landlords, who already have persistent vacancies. <

Evans didn't discount that complaint, but he noted UW-Madison won't require students to live on campus. They just want to give students more options, he said. Currently, UW-Madison is the only institution in the Big 10 that doesn't guarantee on-campus freshman housing. <

"I do believe there will be fewer freshmen living off campus once the University Square development opens, and that will impact the private market," he said. "But right now several hundred students don't have a choice about where to live." <