New residence halls slated for construction within the next five years will cost more for UW-Madison students and will more closely resemble near campus private housing, Paul Evans, director of university housing said Friday.
By building the new dormitories as part of Chancellor John Wiley's recently proposed several-hundred-million-dollar campus renovation plan, Evans said the university is trying to accommodate for more freshmen and to update rooms to make them fit with modern living styles.
Though these enhancements will cost more than the current $5,170 per resident, Evans said he has not yet determined how much more.
The new halls will have bigger rooms and suite-style living, with a bathroom shared between two rooms instead of an entire hall, much like private residence halls currently do.
These more apartment-style rooms may take away private residence hall business, Evans said, but the university's main concern is that UW-Madison freshmen have housing.
\With the idea that we would be guaranteeing all freshmen housing eventually and getting a little bigger, that that's going to cut into ... potentially some of the students that Steve gets,"" Evans said.
Steve Brown Apartments representatives repeatedly declined to comment on these issues, but City Council President Mike Verveer, District 4, also stated previously that Steve Brown sees the new dormitories as a threat to his private residence hall business.??
Despite this, one resident assistant at private residence hall the Statesider, 505 N. Frances St., who wanted to go unnamed said he thinks the dorms will not detract from business because private residence halls cater to niches and university housing does not have the resources to provide such individualized attention.
""We tend to cater to the students who do want luxury rooms. Also we have some buildings that are strictly upperclassmen,"" he said.
The resident assistant said private residence halls have not changed their marketing techniques or tried to target different prospective residents to reflect the possible decrease in incoming freshmen.
""As of right now our marketing plan is staying intact for this upcoming year, but in the following year it could possibly change as those new dorms become closer to completion,"" he said.
