Front Page DMN: A Degree With Perks - Dedman Center

[MrMustang1965]

Looks like it's time to dig out that old t-shirt that says "SMU Country Club"!

By JAMES M. O'NEILL / The Dallas Morning News

When Judith Baines attended Southern Methodist University in the late 1960s, her recreational options amounted to little more than ballroom dancing on a wood floor built over a swimming pool in the women's gym.

Today, as SMU's director of recreational sports, Ms. Baines oversees a new student recreation facility jam-packed with gravity trainers, spinners, an aerobic workout room with seven large flat-screen TVs, elliptical trainers outfitted with personal TV monitors, six racquetball courts, a lap pool, a 40-foot tall rock climbing wall, a 60-foot-long bouldering wall, an indoor soccer field, a 15,000-square-foot weight room, two sand volleyball courts, an elevated indoor track, treadmills with views of the Dallas skyline, a coffee shop, and a place to rent tents and canoes.

Oh – and a 7-foot outdoor waterfall and wading pool, where students sunbathe and socialize. "That area's been so popular we had to buy more chaise longues," Ms. Baines said.

The $25 million Dedman Center for Lifetime Sports is SMU's latest effort to keep pace with colleges across the country as they spend millions on amenities to enhance the student experience.

The trend is fueled by the intense competition among colleges trying to attract students who are in high demand, as well as a cultural shift among the students, who expect college to provide a certain quality of life.

"Today's student is a consumer like none before," said Bob Brown, vice president of business and administration at Texas A&M-Commerce. "Things I might see as niceties they look at as essential."

"It's all a part of a cultural change," said Baylor University President John M. Lilley. "When I was a student at Baylor in the early 1960s, who thought about fitness?"

When adding amenities, colleges are driven by what peer institutions are doing. Still, the campus perks race has raised questions about the impact of their cost on college access for lower-income students.

The amenities have transformed every aspect of college life – from dining to dorms.

Gone are the large "gang bathrooms" in dorms. Today, new residence halls provide suite-style or single rooms with private baths, as well as units with kitchens.

Gone is the need to hoard quarters to feed battered old laundry machines in dingy dorm basements. Today, Baylor students can pay a reduced rate for a service to pick up their laundry, wash it, fold it and return it to their rooms.

Technology rules, and the changes are swift and furious. Colleges that just a few years ago trumpeted dorm rooms with a "portal per pillow" for Internet access now have wireless campuses.

The competition continually reaches new heights. When Baylor decided to include a climbing wall in its recreation center, plans called for the wall to extend 41 feet. Then officials learned that Texas A&M University's wall is 44 feet high. Baylor adjusted its blueprints for a 52-foot wall.

Then the University of Houston built a 53-foot wall.

Baylor's rec center includes massage therapy services, which are in great demand during finals week, said Jeff Walter, assistant director for student life facilities. There's also a leisure pool with looping water slide, vortex and shallow lazy river, against whose current the Baylor's track team runs for an extra challenge.

All of these amenities cost money. Baylor raised $21 million from alumni and other donors for its rec center. SMU raised tuition 3 percent over two years to pay for its new rec center. Texas A&M students voted to increase fees for their rec center.

Some question whether the increased costs pose barriers for lower-income students.

"I can imagine that students from low-income families could enjoy these amenities. But they tend to work long and hard to help pay their college costs and support their families," Tom Mortenson, a senior scholar at The Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education, said by e-mail. "So the costs institutions must add to their student charges to pay for these amenities probably add to existing cost barriers at such campuses."

College officials counter that they factor in more need-based aid when calculating fee hikes.

When Ms. Baines made her arguments to SMU leaders about the need for the rec center, she cited a 1994 study that suggested that rec facilities lowered the risk of attrition among "situationally at-risk" students – those who are commuters, work 20 or more hours or are the first generation to attend college.

Do students actually make their college choice based on the size of a climbing wall or whether they'll have to share a bathroom?

"First impressions are important," said Baylor's Dr. Lilley. "It takes a balance. We need to be good stewards of our resources, but we also need to compete with other institutions. We need to meet young people where you find them. They do care about fitness, and they won't stand in lines."

Chuck Fuller, assistant vice president for business services at the University of North Texas, said even many students who come from modest means had a private bedroom. "So acculturating them into a shared-occupancy bedroom at college is difficult." Though they cost $1,200 extra a year, UNT's single rooms sell out first.

New U.S. Census data backs Mr. Fuller's premise. Homes built in the U.S. today have more rooms, giving kids more privacy. In 1973, 4-bedroom houses represented only 23 percent of new homes; in 2005, they were 39 percent.

Students at SMU rave about their new facility. The first phase of the center opened last fall; the second, this summer.

Chance Sherer, 21, a senior from Greenville, said the old weight room was so small that if he didn't hover over the equipment, he might never get to use it.

Ryan Lungwitz, 21, a senior from Wichita, Kan., agreed. "It's a night-and-day difference," he said. "This is like being in heaven."

The waterfall-tanning area also draws kudos. "It's very resort-esque," said Jack Gallivan, 20, a junior from Highland Park. "Instead of having to drive an hour to your friend's lake house, you can just stay here and hang out."

Some schools hesitate to embrace every amenity trend.

Frank Shushock, Baylor's dean of student learning and engagement, said having students live two to a room works out better for the school's mission than providing individual dorm rooms. "The university is built to create citizens who are able to navigate through society," he said.

Baylor made a conscious effort to have its newer residence halls open onto small community centers rather than parking lots, to gently push students and faculty together and fabricate the chance encounters that provide experiences for learning that are as powerful as classroom time.

Dallas Baptist University has also chosen amenities carefully. It offers wireless access but has no climbing wall.

"Some institutions have gone almost resortlike in their amenities," said Mark Hale, DBU's dean of students. "But we have not been encouraged to do that by our students. We're not a bunch of monks up here, but amenities are not our focus. Instead, it is to create servant leaders.

"If a student came to DBU and complained there was no climbing wall," Mr. Hale said, "they probably weren't a good fit here anyway."

[mr. pony]

I think it's good pub.

[jtstang]

I think it's good pub.

In the Morning News? Say it ain't so.

[mr. pony]

'Bout time, ain't it? I think we're making some progress with our campaign.