At the start of fall semester, the University of Kentucky opened the doors to five new undergraduate residence halls. The most recent of a dozen living-and-learning facilities set for completion by fall 2016, in partnership with the private collegiate-housing company Education Realty Trust (EdR).
The 12 buildings, seven of which have been completed, will represent a combined 2.1 million square feet of on-campus living space. The $348.3 million investment by EdR so far is part of one of the most extensive private-public housing deals ever undertaken by a major university.
In all, EdR could spend about $500 million on UK’s student-housing transformation to replace, construct and operate up to 9,000 beds, with UK ultimately retaining a quarter of the net income.
But the new construction is about more than creating desirable modern digs for more discriminating college students, said Penny Cox, UK’s director of housing project implementation and new strategies. The swiftly moving project is already showing the kind of academic results that UK had been hoping for, Cox said, in the form of higher performance and retention.
According to a recent comparative analysis conducted by the university, students housed in the new living-and-learning programs (LLPs) had an average GPA of 3.24 in the fall semester, as compared with the average 3.05 GPA for all UK undergraduate housing residents. One out of every four LLP students received a 4.0 GPA for the semester, and one out of every two achieved a 3.5 GPA or greater. In addition, the retention rate from fall to spring for students in the new residence halls was nearly 95 percent. Such outcomes, Cox said, stem from strong partnerships with the university’s academic colleges.
The new residence halls are made to house student communities centered on mutual academic interests, experiences and pursuits, such as the engineering residential college, the business enterprise community and the residence program for first-generation students who are the first in their families to attend college. These communities, housed within modern facilities, can ultimately boost student success, said Mary Vosevich, vice president for facilities management at UK.
“You have cohorts of students, that because of the areas of study they are involved in, they want to be together,” Vosevich said. “They study together, they recreate together, and that is something that is really sustainable.” Roughly 67 percent of the square footage in the new buildings comprises student rooms, and the rest is allotted as mechanical and academic support space, including study rooms, classrooms and shell space to be fitted up as needed, with uses ranging from tutoring centers to dining and retail shops.
The student units also offer upgraded amenities, including Tempur-Pedic mattresses on extra-long double beds, granite countertops for bathroom vanities and in-suite kitchenettes and separate bedrooms in two-person suites with semi-private bathrooms.
“It fits with what the students’ expectations are,” said Cox, who added that 93 percent of incoming students at UK indicated that they had never shared a room prior to attending college.
The 2014-15 rental rate for a two-bedroom suite in the newly opened residence halls at Champions Court I and II, Woodland Glen I and II or Haggin Hall was $3,904 per semester. That cost is set to increase to $4,021 per semester for 2015-16. By comparison, the rate for the older, traditional-style double-occupancy dorm rooms with shared hallway baths in Kirwin and Blanding Towers was set at $2,323 per semester for 2014-15 and $2,393 per semester in 2015-16. Under the university’s agreement with EdR, the rates on the new residence halls are set to increase by 3 percent annually through 2017-18, Cox said.
The first of the new residence halls, Central I and II, which opened in fall 2013, are subject to local property taxes. However, the contract with EdR for the five buildings that opened in 2014 was structured differently, Vosevich said, allowing UK to retain ownership of the buildings. As a result, those residence halls are exempt from local property taxes.
In terms of economic impact, UK President Eli Capilouto has estimated that the construction of new residence halls on campus will spur more than 9,400 direct and indirect jobs and generate roughly $10.2 million in tax revenues for the state.
With UK’s student enrollment surpassing 30,000 for the first time in 2014, and a 40 percent increase in the number of out-of-state freshmen, the demand for on-campus housing also has increased substantially. More than 7,000 students requested placement in on-campus housing in the fall, Cox said. Vosevich and Cox said they still expect continued demand for off -campus housing as well.
“When you look at the gap, [on-campus housing accounts for] about 30 percent of undergraduates and about 8 percent of graduate students, so in reality, we’re [housing] about 24 percent of the student population on campus,” Cox said. “Those apartments that were built on Angliana or Broadway — they’re full, just like we’re full, because the campus is growing.”
The new residence halls are just one element of the university’s overall plan for renovation and new construction on campus, which comprises 84 projects with a total investment of roughly $1.36 billion between July 2011 and October 2014. That equates to more than $1 million per day spent on renovation and construction during that time period, with state and federal funding accounting for only 4 percent of the university’s funding model for the project.
Additional UK Construction Projects
• A $110 million renovation of Commonwealth Stadium, funded with athletics revenues, to be completed by August 2015;
• A $65 million renovation and expansion of the Gatton College of Business and Economics, funded through private donations, to be finished in the spring of 2016;
• The 90, an 82,000-square-foot dining facility scheduled to open in fall 2015, which will house a residential dining hall with four retail dining shops — Panera, Taco Bell Express, Aqua Sushi and Ovid’s;
• A $100 million Academic Science Building, currently under construction on the corner of Rose Street and Huguelet Avenue, to be funded in part with athletic revenues and completed in August 2016;
• A $20 million renovation of the College of Fine Arts;
• A $150 million investment in Pavilion A of UK Chandler Hospital, including the relocation of the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit and the fit-up of two additional floors; and
• A $175 million renovation and expansion of the Student Center, pending bond approval by state lawmakers.