B Y - P A U L - K A R R
ver at the Towne Club apartment complex off Milledge Avenue, it's a typical fall
afternoon. Guys are spiking volleyballs into the sand and keeping an eye on the bikini-clad apartment dwellers lounging around the pool.
"It's a great place!" says junior Rob Keith, who lived at Towne Club for two years. "You have more freedom than you do in the dorms, I got to play volleyball every day, and I think every sorority girl on Milledge Avenue has been to our pool."
Built in 1991--24 years after the newest UGA dorm--Towne Club and other apartment complexes like it have been been competing with residence halls for customers for years.
Only 18 percent of the student body currently lives on campus, and at least one member of the State Board of Regents thinks UGA ought to get out of the housing business altogether.
But a few blocks from Towne Club, Caroline Holley and Lisa Lopes are delighted that they live in Reed Hall. Not the same Fifties-era warehouse-style dorm that most alums remember, but a newly renovated Reed with amenities that give Towne Club a run for its money--including a prime campus location.
"My math class is right over there," says Holley, pointing out the window. "I walk to all my classes. I'm so close, I don't have an excuse not to go."
Holley and Lopes are among the first residents to try out a new Reed innovation--the six-person Super Suite--and they love it.
"I appreciate having somewhere else to go besides my own room," says Lopes of the large living room area that ties the Super Suite bedrooms together. The extra space allows students to bring in one or two couches and still have room for a small table. That's where Lopes and Holley and their roomies enjoy sit-down dinners cooked in the kitchenette down the hall.
 Fall semester was just a few days old and Zach Otis-McDonough, a sophomore from Atlanta, had already outfitted his room with all the comforts--and clutter--of home. |
Reed still has its drawbacks. Parking's a hassle, the nearest dining room is several blocks away, and two floors weren't ready for occupancy when students came back for fall semester. (See related story in Up Front section.)
Built in 1953 as a solution to that era's housing crunch, Reed Hall was home to more than 430 students when it was closed for construction. They were shoehorned into small rooms on daunting, windowless corridors, and they were forced to share a communal bathroom and showers.
By contrast, the new Reed is so nice there's a waiting list to get into it.
"Reed Hall has a lot more bedroom privacy than before, yet still a lot of interaction," says Jim Day, who has served as director of UGA Housing since 1990. "It's designed so students will meet in kitchens and study rooms. We're trying to build in a community-living component and still meet privacy and space needs."
Reed's facelift cost $10.4 million, and it's just one part of a 12-year, $60 million renovation and replacement plan that will give UGA the facilities it needs to compete in a local market that recently ranked in the top 10 in the U.S. in per-capita housing starts.
OFF CAMPUS EXODUS
"It wasn't like this once upon a time," says Dwight Douglas, vice president for student affairs. "When the last round of UGA housing was built [Russell Hall in 1967], it was clean, safe, low-cost housing, with double-loaded corridors and gang showers and no extra electrical outlets."
But the old guidelines--two bunks to a room, no private study space or bathrooms--don't work anymore, says Douglas, in an era when roommates greet each other in a tense face-off of desktop computers, color printers, and stereo music systems.
"Too much stuff," chuckles Day, upon whose shoulders the space and ambiance problems fall squarely.
To house all their stuff and find parking for their cars, students think they have to move off-campus. What they give up, says Day, are some important advantages of living on campus: lower rent, closer proximity to class, better security--and students who live on campus make better grades.
Advantages to dorm life: cheaper, closer, safer (better grades, too!)
Price is not a factor in housing decisions, says Day. Although UGA's dorm costs are about average for a Southern university, students and their parents are willing and able to pay more for rent and utilities--"typically 40 percent more," says Day--to live off-campus.
Studies reveal a number of reasons. Students want fewer rules and less supervision. Then there's parking.
"Parking was the worst," says Erin Oxford, a junior from Madison who moved off-campus after a year in Creswell Hall. "You'd come back at 1 a.m. and there would be no parking places; you had to park a long way away. That was scary."
Students can purchase a sticker for the West Campus parking deck, but it frequently sells out. In contrast, students who live in off-campus apartment complexes are virtually guaranteed a parking place--that is, unless someone's throwing a keg party.
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Left: They may look like apartment dwellers, but these Reed Hall residents are ensconced in one of the new 6-person Super Suites. Larger view of photo
Top: Newly renovated, all-female Soule Hall pre-dates the new $60 million plan. |
ALL-IMPORTANT PRIVATE BEDROOM
Privacy appears to be the principal reason for the popularity of off-campus housing, which typically offers single bedrooms with private bathrooms. In a 1998 survey, 93 percent of UGA freshmen reported they didn't share a bedroom at home during their high school years--something that once was commonplace.
"Living spaces are cramped and there's a general lack of cleanliness in the dorms," says John Johnson, who left Russell Hall for private housing after his freshman year. "Off-campus is more adult-style living, more responsibility."
Johnson's concerns about cleanliness are not borne out by facilities surveys, which show low levels of satisfaction in only a few areas: bathroom cleanliness on weekends (59 percent satisfaction rate), availability of graduate staff when needed (59 percent), computer lab services (43 percent), and room temperatures during the winter (39 percent). Most revealing, perhaps, is the fact that 89 percent of respondents said they would recommend living on campus as a way to aid personal and academic growth. (See housing survey story in Columns.)
Visitation rules are another hassle that many students surveyed for this story want to do without.
"We have these rules because it's high-density living, so we need to regulate privacy and noise," says Day. "And, obviously, as a state agency we can't condone underage alcohol use. Most of the students living on campus are under the age of 21."
Nearly everyone has complaints about dorm life, yet nine of 10 residents recommend living on campus to aid in one's personal and academic growth.
The deteriorating condition of UGA's dorms is another consideration. Students mention room size and building age as primary negatives about living on campus.
"I'd really like to have air conditioning, a second phone line, and an Internet hookup," says Gia Tillotson, a senior from Dalton who was otherwise happy with Myers Hall. "The elevators are constantly messing up--and I live on the eighth floor!" adds Ben Hallman, a sophomore from Claxton living in Oglethorpe House. "Also, sometimes it can get loud."
Housing officials agree. After thumping walls and turning taps, Day's office declared 10 of the University's 17 residence halls "below average," while five were rated as "average" and only two were considered to be in "good" condition.
DORMS NOT ON PACE WITH GROWTH
"There was a whole lot of construction going on around the country in the 1960s," says Day, "and most of those buildings are now reaching the end of their useful life cycles. At the same time, in the last generation or so there has been an incredible change in students' expectations."
During the past two decades--a period when enrollment increased nearly 30 percent--the housing picture has changed very little. In that time, the University has purchased one apartment complex (Brandon Oaks, for families) and one private dorm (Oglethorpe House); built one addition (to McWhorter Hall in 1987); and carried out one renovation prior to Reed Hall (to aging Soule, in 1990).
Meanwhile, unprecedented building took place in Athens during the 1980s and again before the 1996 Olympics. The city ranked in the top 10 in the nation in per-capita new housing growth during 1996--which has left students with a wealth, even a glut, of private-housing choices.
"UGA's philosophy has been to let students have a landlord experience. It's part of their going out into the world--signing a lease and dealing with all of that," says Danny Sniff, director of the University Architect's office. "Increasingly, though, students are asking, 'Why can't I have the best of both worlds?' They want all the amenities of apartments, and they also want to be close to campus."
"For awhile, the policy here was that we pretty much left it up to the private sector to supply new housing stock while we spent capital on other projects," says Day, explaining three decades of inactivity. "I think it's safe to say there has been a change in direction since President Adams got here."
Even before Adams arrived, Day discovered that UGA was investing only about 70 percent of what a university its size typically should for housing repairs--a $1.6 million annual difference between should and did, says Day. With enrollment slated to rise by another 2,500 students by 2002, UGA faces the prospect of having to construct new housing beyond what will be added in the replacement phase of the $60 million plan.
The money will come from a cash reserve fund that accumulates each year as rent checks arrive. Each project will have to be approved one at a time by the State Board of Regents. UGA won't make a profit on the projects, says Day, but it won't lose its shirt either.
"As we modernize, we expect there will be higher demand for the housing by students," he predicts.
UGA's short- and long-term plans point to a larger issue: the phasing out of warehouse-style dormitories. Aware that studies show students living in campus housing earn slightly better grades--their GPAs are typically a bit higher than their off-campus counterparts--administrators have begun touting a new vision of the way dorms will look: the "village concept."
IT TAKES A VILLAGE
The village concept consists not of towering high-rises where occupants rarely see each other, but of clusters of smaller buildings designed around central activity areas connected by pedestrian walkways and green space.
This village concept has a long tradition. Thomas Jefferson's "academic village" design at the University of Virginia is the classic example; UGA's original North Campus is another.
To add more visual appeal and restore continuity to the sprawling campus, last year the regents hired Ayers/Saint/Gross, a Baltimore architectural firm, to help devise UGA's Master Facilities Plan. The firm has spent months interviewing housing officials, administrators, deans, and students--and walking the campus themselves. Day's staff did its part by constructing mock dorm rooms and walking students and contractors through them to learn what students like and what materials are easiest to maintain over the long haul. Day and Sniff also toured five Southern campuses--Florida State, Appalachian State, Clemson, Vanderbilt and the University of Florida--to get a feel for new design ideas.
 Day expects the $60 million plan to include the renovation of five residence halls (Reed, Myers, Payne, Rutherford, Morris) and the replacement of five others (Boggs, Church, Hill, Lipscomb, Mell). But regents' approval is needed for each project. |
The final Master Facilities Plan is to be presented to the regents in February, and it's clear the village concept is making a comeback.
In the new and improved Reed Hall, every double room has its own bathroom, and floors have public spaces for studying and seminars. Rooms are up to 50 percent larger; in many cases, three old rooms were reconfigured into two new ones. Efficiency kitchens, elevators, and recycling/trash chutes are also part of the mix--as are thicker walls to reduce noise and increase privacy.
Modernizing buildings goes a long way toward closing the gap between dorms and apartment complexes because, under the right circumstances, students really are fond of living on campus.
"There's a real sense of community here," says Ben Hallman of Oglethorpe House. "It's nice having all these friends living on the same floor of the same hall."
Day's staff is trying to enhance that feeling of community by bringing more "academic success programming" into the dorms. "Students say they want more talks on topics such as how to be more effective while studying," says Day. "We're doing that."
All told, it could soon make for a much more interesting campus--and a safer one, given the increased foot traffic.
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
Participants in the process say the 25-year blueprint will also likely call for upgrades of the University's family housing buildings and for plenty of activity on East Campus. Sniff, Day, and the consultants say they can envision apartment complexes attached to one side of the East Campus Parking Deck and looking out onto a large green space on the other. New construction, campus officials agree, would probably require state bonds.
| Campus Life in the Future |
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Enhanced Internet access More on-campus activities |
A regent recently scolded the University, suggesting it "get the hell out of the housing business" and allow the glut of private apartments to handle students instead of overspending on amenities such as extra Reed Hall bathrooms. Day is placid about the controversy, if a bit disturbed by its implications.
"What's implied by that is that if something is done by the state government, it's got to be wasteful," he says, emphasizing the extra-rigid safety codes and standards to which UGA housing is built. "Sure, things take longer. There are more regulations. But in the end that means more quality. We build concrete walls that last."
Sniff makes another important point about the weakness of the private sector.
"What people don't realize is that, with privatization, if a building's not making a profit they will cut the services first--the potlucks, the volleyball games, the new coats of paint," says Sniff. "The University simply would not do that."
That's why Day is betting that the next generation of UGA students will be lining up to move into the new breed of dorms.
"Students are interested in a rewarding intellectual, social, and recreational experience with other young people," he says. "At the same time, they want comfortable, affordable, and secure accommodations. The village concept is dedicated to making all that possible either in your own hall or within walking or biking distance of where you live. To me, it's the wave of the future."