CAMPUS & CAREER GUIDE : Dorms WITH A Difference : Campus Housing Offers the Comforts of Home
When Mi Kyung Kim was trying to decide which university to attend three years ago, she had more on her mind than the quality of academic programs, the size of the lecture halls or the number of National Merit scholars walking through the quad.
She wanted a campus with a touch of domesticity, where she would have more than a roof over her head at the end of the day.
“At first, where you live may not seem so pertinent because basically you’re going to college for an education,” said Kim, now a UCLA junior majoring in anthropology. “But after a whole day of class, I like to go back to a place that I can call home.”
There was a time when students like Kim could not expect such creature comforts. They were either packed into sterile, functional campus dormitories or, fed up with the crowding and lack of privacy, decided to run the gantlet of cheap, Zhivagoesque apartments and rental houses in the predatory off-campus housing market. The best hope: that the rent was low and the plumbing worked.
But today, students are demanding more than just “Gimme Shelter.” Mindful of their market, campus housing officials are scrambling to respond.
Thus, Kim and 1,366 other UCLA students can choose to live in Sunset Village, the school’s newest residential complex that resembles an upscale suburban enclave, not the barracks-like functional architecture of years past. With an apartment-like layout that guarantees added privacy, Kim likes the 2-year-old complex so much that she has lived in the same room since her freshman year.
More and more, colleges are building complexes like Sunset Village as a way to lure and keep students anchored to campuses. These newer developments sometimes offer a holistic touch, with live-in professors, theme housing, nearby shops and conveniences that students once only dreamed about.
In UCLA’s case, it was competition with Westwood landlords that prompted student housing officials to pay closer attention to the domestic needs of the 5,627 undergraduates living on campus.
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Five years ago, college officials had nothing to worry about. With housing in Westwood tight and rents high, thousands of students signed waiting lists just to find a place on campus, said Jack Gibbons, associate director of UCLA’s Office of Residential Life.
The picture changed drastically when a building boom in Westwood and the recession led to a surplus of apartments. Landlords cut rents, triggering an exodus of students from the old-fashioned dormitories into cheaper Westwood apartments. The waiting lists dwindled and UCLA housing officials faced vacant dorm rooms.
“Students found acceptable alternatives elsewhere as local, private landlords offered incentives, such as ‘Come live with us and you’ll get a free trip to Hawaii’ or ‘We’ll pay your fall (registration) fees for you,’ ” Gibbons said.
“So, in order to retain residents from one year to the next, and attract new students, we have done some things to market our desirability in housing programs,” he said.
Those changes include the construction of Sunset Village.
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The $90-million complex has three buildings, with modern architecture and landscaping crossed with sidewalks and dotted with magnolia trees. Unlike traditional dorms, rooms resemble apartments, affording privacy with individual bathrooms, air conditioning and heaters.
“When I first moved in, I just loved it,” Kim said. “I felt like I was moving into a mini-apartment. And I was glad because I didn’t want to feel like I was living in an anonymous cubicle.”
Other students said the private bathrooms--rather than the communal facilities used in dorms--were also key in attracting students to Sunset Village.
“It’s really cool here. We have our own bathroom and it’s really important to us girls,” said third-year business and economics major Frances Ng.
Because there is so much counter space, Ng added, she sometimes studies in the bathroom.
Third-year student Bobby Lee said private bathrooms were essential for another reason. As a freshman living in one of UCLA’s high-rise dorms, Lee said he and his roommate once made the embarrassing mistake of walking into the girls’ bathroom.
“I told my mother if I was going to live in the dorms at all, then I wanted to live in Sunset Village because I needed a quieter, bigger space with its own bathroom,” Lee said.
Nestled in the middle of Sunset Village’s residential space is another popular amenity--a commons building, where students can mingle with resident professors, talk to counselors, get tutoring or do their homework in a computer lab. First-year students can also take freshman seminars in the building.
Across the way there is Puzzles, an arcade and after-hours fast-food restaurant, as well as Hilltop, a mini-student union where students can buy anything ranging from school supplies to compact discs.
“The result is that we’ve more fully integrated the students’ academic experience with their residential experience,” Gibbons said.
The changes appear to be succeeding, he added. During the beginning of the academic year, more students were seeking UCLA housing than expected and, for a short time, several students lived in lounges that had been converted into makeshift rooms.
Some were relocated to a wing of Dykstra Hall’s basement, which officials had been thinking about shutting down.
Although it can cost as much as $1,810 more a year to live in Sunset compared to the typical high-rise dorm, students do not seem to mind, Gibbons said. “Sunset Village is very popular with both new and returning students. It seems that they want to pay the price.”
Then there’s the snob appeal.
“A lot of people call us spoiled because it costs more, but I think it’s worth it,” said Ng. “In comparison to the other dorms, I feel like I’m living high-class.”
Other universities have changed their approach to student housing as well. The University of Southern California, which has the second-largest student housing program in the state, is experimenting with a residential college complex modeled after Oxford’s and Harvard’s. Professors live with students at the complex and participate more in their daily lives, said Ken Taylor, USC’s director of residential and Greek life.
“It’s a chance for students to get to know faculty as complete human beings and not just as an unapproachable someone standing in front of a classroom,” he said.
Twice as many faculty apply to live in the complex than there are slots available, enticed by the rent-free housing.
In Orange County, enrollment growth at UC Irvine created a bigger demand for on-campus living. Instead of building traditional dormitories, UCI constructed 35 theme houses, which opened in September. The residences bring together students with common interests--such as engineering, fine arts or Greek letter organizations.
Stanford University, which has the largest student housing program in the state, finds accommodations for 93% of its undergraduates, or 5,900 students, and has used theme houses for several years. “Students organize their lives around the individual residences and have a strong house identity,” said William Georges, Stanford’s director of housing.
But the changes in on-campus housing have not been successful in coaxing all students back to campus. David White, a UCLA junior majoring in psychology, said he moved off campus to find something cheaper and less restrictive.
“There are a lot of rules and regulations in the dorms that limit your freedom,” said White, referring to UCLA bans on alcohol consumption, except behind dorm room doors, and mandatory quiet hours every evening. “Those restrictions don’t apply in the real world. They’re unrealistic.”
Even those who said they have enjoyed living in the residence halls plan to move off campus before graduation.
Kim said she will probably move into non-UCLA housing around Westwood next year.
“At the same time that I enjoy living here, I feel coddled,” she said. “I think I’m mature enough to handle living on my own and I have to find out sooner or later anyway.”
Times staff writer Bill Billiter contributed to this story.
