On-campus housing conclusion
Soon, students will be paying for housing for winter semester. They will be signing checks, handing over wads of cash and charging expenses to their student accounts.
But before they do, students should realize what is determining the price they pay for rent and how that price compares to university housing across the nation.
There are many factors that contribute to campus housing costs, said BYU-Idaho Economics Professor, Rick Hirschi, but most factors can be lumped into the cost of living.
“It (cost of living) is just a rate that changes each year. As the cost of living rises, salaries go up, gas gets more expensive, and so we have to [raise] the housing costs,” said Peggy Lowdermilk, housing director at Southern Virginia University.
Initial building costs, utilities and repairs are all factors in the final cost charged to students at Utah State University, said Anne Spackman, housing administrative assistant at Utah State University.
The cost of goods and services, such as electric, water, sewer, etc., in any given area determine the cost of living, according to www.wikipedia.com.
And as all of these factors differ across the country so does the cost of living and final cost of housing.
For example, campus housing would be significantly more expensive in Boston than in Rexburg because of Boston’s higher cost of living, Hirschi said.
At BYU-I a shared dorm room with a medium-grade meal plan costs about $511 per month for students on fall/winter track, according to BYU-I Housing.
Compared to other university housing in towns similar in size to Rexburg, BYU-I seems to be pretty cheap.
Michigan State University charges about $175 more than BYU-I per month, and Southern Virginia University pulls in a close second in cheapness, charging about $25 more than BYU-I per month.
And when BYU-I is compared with on-campus housing at universities in larger cities, especially in the East, the cost of living in those areas surge the rent to prices that make the BYU-I dorm rates look heavenly.
For the same type of housing at the University of California-Los Angeles housing rates are about $750 more than BYU-I per month. And at New York University, average housing for dorms costs more than $1,000 per month.
A major difference when comparing non-LDS universities to BYU-I is the general requirement upon students to stay in on-campus dorms during their freshman year.
The requirement is in place because of the financial situation for a freshman, and for “educational value of living in the residence halls during the freshman year,” said Stacy Klippenstein, director of University Housing and New Student Programs at Central Washington University.
Freshmen who stay in dorms are more likely to do well in school, be involved in campus activities and graduate, Klippenstein said.
At BYU-I freshmen are encouraged to live in the dorms but are not forced due to the approved housing status that is required of any off-campus housing complex housing students.
On-campus housing in Rexburg is priced relatively cheap when compared with other university markets in the Western region of the United States, and yet is not required as many of the more expensive housing units in the region are.
But will the off-campus required approved housing also rank in the relatively cheap price range?
Off-campus housing conclusion
The fact that students attending BYU-Idaho must stay in approved apartments, even off-campus, is the biggest factor that sets us apart from other universities. But does that same approved status make housing more expensive?
To be approved, a complex must agree to live by and enforce the Honor Code. Also managers receive training from BYU-I and complexes are inspected yearly.
Quite a few students live in off-campus housing: roughly 10 percent. There are more than 100 off-campus approved housing units for single students.
But unlike most Rexburg single housing, apartments in other university towns are rented as a whole, not per-person.
Compared to the $214 per month for an average approved single housing apartment in Rexburg, cities that house universities in Virginia, Utah and Oregon are less expensive. The average apartment in those three states was about $150 per month, without utilities, or about $180 with utilities, according to www.apartments.com.
One of the cities averaging $180 per month was Salt Lake City. Considering that the Salt Lake area has roughly 10 times as many people as Rexburg, which would normally indicate a higher cost of living, the monetary difference could be even more than this simple comaparison shows.
Why are students in Rexburg paying nearly $240 more per academic year than students attending a university in a city with a higher cost of living?
In comparison, single non-students living in community housing pay on average $148 per month, per person, nearly $70 less than approved housing. However, for this price, the apartments do not come furnished. One local complex charges $25 per month, another $40 for furnishings.
To the general public, the reasons for the higher Rexburg student prices is a mystery. But Rick Hirschi, BYU-I economics professor, said the main reason goes back to the student requirement to live in approved housing.
There is a different market in Rexburg because the only students that are going to live in these complexes are students, not general city population which could live in the same complexes as students in other cities.
However, the approval process should not be looked at as a disadvantage for complex owners because it is relatively easy for a housing complex to go through the approval process and begin to house students, Hirschi said.
Another defense that Hirschi had for Rexburg housing is the “non-price competition” that is a regular practice between housing complexes.
When there is more housing available than needed, like now, then housing wants to preserve its profits. So when trying to compete with other complexes they cannot touch their prices; lowering prices would be “cutting their throats,” Hirschi said. In order to compete complexes add amenities like pools, computer labs or game rooms.
In complexes that have been built since Ricks College became BYU-I, these extra amenities are more obvious and result in significantly higher rent rates.
Others argue that apartments in Rexburg may cost more, but the housing is, at least in theory, of a certain level of quality. Issues like alcohol consumption, partying, drug use and other matters covered by the Honor Code aren’t a problem. If there is a problem with these things, contacting the housing office can generally solve the problem. With unapproved housing there’s no guarantee.
All of these reasons have ground in Rexburg, but without going to apartment complexes all over the nation and comparing their amenities to those offered at complexes in Rexburg, it is hard to prove whether they are a substantial reason for higher Rexburg prices.
And disregarding the reasoning for why approved housing should cost more than off-campus housing in cities similar to Rexburg, the numbers still stand as evidence that Rexburg housing prices might be unfair and should be re-evaluated.
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