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The Arms Race In Campus Construction

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The Arms Race In Campus Construction

Postby Cheesesteak » Sun Aug 28, 2005 1:25 pm

The Arms Race In Campus Construction

Students are demanding a higher standard of living. And universities are dropping big bucks on first class facilities to meet their expectations.

MSNBC.com CURRENT MAGAZINE
By Brad Nelson
Washington University in St. Louis
Aug. 26, 2005

Fall 2005 issue - It took a decade’s worth of lobbying, but finally last March, students at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill received the one gift they thought would never come: a brand new student center. And this isn’t some run-of-the-mill cinder block box, either. The $80 million Rams Head Center features, among other amenities, a sports bar and arcade inspired by the ESPN Zone in Baltimore, a 6,500 square foot supermarket with an organic food section, and a recreation center with a two-story climbing wall.

Privileged? Yes. Spoiled? Maybe. Rare? Not anymore. All across the country, colleges and universities are responding to student demands for lavish housing, upscale student centers, and state of the art recreation centers. With the last great wave of campus construction happening 30 or 40 years ago, colleges are making sure their new buildings last just as long. “We don’t want to have to replace these buildings every 10 years,” says Stephen Farmer, the director of admissions at UNC-Chapel Hill.

This year, schools will spend over $14.5 billion on new construction projects, according to a survey conducted by the trade journal College Planning and Management. That’s almost twice the amount spent on construction just five years ago and seven times the amount that was spent 25 years ago. To put that into perspective, according to the United States Department of Education, expenditures for instruction have only tripled in the same 25 year time span. “Today’s students are going to school for six or seven years, so the school really becomes a home for them and they expect more out of it,” says Deborah Moore, executive editor of College Planning and Management.

Nathan Brenner, a sophomore at Boston University, agrees. He never used to work out before the April opening of BU’s $80 million fitness center, which boasts 18,000 square feet of workout space and group exercise rooms for yoga and Pilates classes. Now, he’s at the gym five or six times a week. “The fitness center has definitely enhanced my quality of life,” he says. And, judging by how crowded it is, other students feel the same way. “It’s busy every time I’m there,” Brenner says, “even a half hour before closing.”

Bill Canning, director of recreational sports at University of Michigan and a consultant for campus recreation center construction, says some of students’ fondest memories will be from the time they spend in quality of life facilities. He likes to recount a story in which he asked a group of dentists, who were four-time intramural basketball champs during dental school, if they’d like to donate money to have a basketball court at a renovated fitness center named after them. “Sure, we’d rather donate the money there,” they told Canning. “We’d had a hell of a better time playing basketball than cleaning people’s teeth.”

“You’re at the institution to get your education,” Canning says, “but that quality of life while you are getting your degree can be a good experience or be a bad experience.” Top of the line fitness centers, he says, make for good experiences.

Students, it seems, enjoy these facilities so much that they’re willing to pay for them. At Louisiana State University, the school originally planned to charge students an extra $10 or $15 fee per semester to pay for renovations to its new recreation center. But students weren’t happy with the original plan. They wanted something better. So the student government voted to implement a $150 per semester student activity fee. Now, when the renovations wrap up in fall 2006, the fitness center will feature a smoothie bar and televisions on the cardiovascular equipment.

Richard Vedder, an Ohio University economics professor who has studied college finances, worries that the willingness of some students to pay for lavish facilities is making it difficult for others to afford college. “Part of the process of college is to provide for equal access to all, and to level the playing field for various generations of young people from all income levels,” Vedder says. “Now, that poor, more deserving kid is going to have a harder time paying for these swanky facilities.” But for colleges, says Bob Hassmiller, the executive director of the National Association of Campus Auxiliary Services, the investment in opulent student life centers is worthwhile, because, ultimately, the facilities become big revenue generators. The buildings often reduce overhead because they are so large and all-encompassing that many different vendors can all operate under one roof. Plus, the shops and eateries at the center, especially the upscale ones, do big business. “[These buildings] are actually keeping the costs down because the money they generate is being used to subsidize building a new biology building or keeping tuition down,” Hassmiller says.

The other advantage: fancy buildings make for great marketing tools. “If you pick up virtually any college guidebook, large, glossy photos of new student centers or fitness facilities usually take up a good amount of space,” says Amy Thompson, a former college counselor who is now an independent college consultant. “It’s only natural that students — and, more importantly, parents, who are paying the bills and want to feel they’re getting their money’s worth — are going to be impressed by these facilities and feel that nice buildings equal quality education.” With more students than ever before attending college — two million more than in 2000, according to the Department of Education — the fight to attract highly qualified students has become fierce. And with the number of enrollments expected to rise through 2014, long term investments, like a new student center, can yield big dividends.

That was the case at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. After the school opened a picturesque student center overlooking Boston Harbor, applications jumped 10 percent. Kathy Teehan, the vice president for enrollment management at UMB, says the surge was no coincidence. “Students' impressions of the campus were affected enormously” in a positive light, she says, “because student life was visible through the center.” But back in North Carolina, Farmer says the opening of the Rams Head Center won’t make a difference to the number or the quality of the applicants applying to the school. “We find that decisions to attend our school are primarily based on the quality of our academics and secondarily
student life,” he says.

Maggie Poertner, who transferred to UNC-Chapel Hill this fall, says she looks forward to using the Rams Head Center, but didn’t decide to go school there because of the facility. “It was the people and how nice they were that attracted me to Chapel Hill,” she says, “although the buildings and the campus were just gorgeous.” Says Hassmiller: “You’re going to make the best decision you can based primarily on where you can get the best education. But if you have the choice between three or four schools, you’re going to choose the place where you really want to live.”
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Postby Col. Nathan R. Jessep » Sun Aug 28, 2005 11:01 pm

The dorms, food service, parking, etc., when measured against the $ cost of other schools, suck on the HillTop when compared to the major private U. across the country.
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Postby covok48 » Tue Oct 11, 2005 1:59 pm

Yes, for all the money we pay to go here we get the most half-assed service around. It boggles the mind really.
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Postby couch 'em » Tue Oct 11, 2005 3:36 pm

Say what you want about parking, etc, but ULee is better than most cafeterias, and I don't know any other school where maids come into your room to clean your suite bathroom.
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Postby EastStang » Tue Oct 11, 2005 5:10 pm

It seems to me, SMU was pretty good foodwise back in the day. The food was better than I had at my graduate school which seemed to always serve colorless casseroles. Better than other campus food facilities, I've visited over the years. We had steak once a week. Chicken twice a week. Roast beef once a week. Salad bar, ice cream bar, milk bar. If you didn't like the food you could always make yourself a milkshake. Dorms had maids come by twice a week to "clean" our rooms. Not many schools have that kind of service. What do you want?Jeeves to iron your blue jeans for you?
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