🔒In competition for top student talent, UConn eyes overhaul of on-campus housing with more modern amenities

As UConn faces the reality that a majority of its on-campus housing is decades-old, the state’s flagship university has plans to demolish and renovate at least a half-dozen residence halls, and would like to bring more housing to its other campuses, including possibly its Hartford branch.

Two major projects are already in the works. UConn’s Board of Trustees recently approved a $215-million investment in a new 657-bed South Campus Residence Hall that is expected to open in 2024. It will feature suite living units and a 500-seat dining hall.

Also planned is the redevelopment of the 1940s-era Mansfield Apartments on South Eagleville Road, into a more modern living complex featuring 800 to 850 rental units.

School officials say building new, modern residential facilities will be key to attracting top student talent, as colleges across the U.S. continue to embark on an amenities arms race with new construction and renovation projects, which some have criticized for driving up the cost of higher education.

UConn houses between 65% and 70% of its undergraduate students on campus each year, one of the highest on-campus residency rates in the nation, school officials said. Its fall 2021 enrollment was 32,669 students, with plans to increase that number in the years ahead, even as colleges nationwide face the prospect of a declining customer base amid America’s changing demographics.

“UConn has risen through the ranks and has become a more well-known institution, not just in the state or regionally, but nationally and internationally,” said Laura Cruickshank, UConn’s associate vice president and master plan and chief architect. “Housing – and housing for undergraduate students – is an important part of being a great university. With these (housing projects) I think we are very much on the path to become even better and to live up to being the state’s flagship university.”

In planning for the next generation of residence facilities, UConn officials said student input was a key part of the process.

In fact, 2,510 students, or about 11% of the entire student body, responded to an April 2020 housing survey, in many cases confirming what the university already knew, said Michael Gilbert, UConn’s vice president of student affairs.

“The feedback was very strong,” Gilbert said. “The outcome of the survey informed our work and the opportunities and initiatives we’re considering.”

What do students want?

Gilbert said the consensus was that most respondents wanted modern attractive housing with many amenities and a large dining area. They also prefer apartments (like Mansfield will have) and suite-style housing (like South Campus will have), followed by private rooms coming in third, he said.

Both South Campus and Mansfield Apartments will be air conditioned, and intimate and friendly public spaces where students can gather, socialize or study, Gilbert said. The South Campus will also have a large dining hall.

Martin Van Der Werf, director of editorial and education policy at Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce, said residence halls in general can be the deciding factor for some students when picking a college or university. 

“When you think about going to school and how much time you spend in the classroom and your dorm room and the food hall, you will spend a lot more time in the dorm room and meeting up with your friends,” Van Der Werf said. “Those are factors a lot of people see as contributing to the quality of your experience at a school. A lot of colleges in recent years have modernized their residence halls and understand this is something to invest in. Housing 
can be the differentiating factor for some people.”

Other UConn projects

UConn has a slate of other projects it’s considering, including the potential demolition and replacement of the North, Northwest and West campus residence halls. Meantime, Brien McMahon and Hilltop halls are candidates for renovation, Cruickshank said.

Those are all future projects with no cost estimates or timetables, she said. UConn currently has 18 residential communities at its Storrs campus ranging from pre-war, historically noteworthy buildings in the East Campus to the Peter J. Werth Tower, which opened in 2016 in the Hilltop area. The last housing construction project prior to the Werth Tower at Storrs was in 1998, officials said.

UConn isn’t alone in dealing with aging facilities.

According to construction data and service provider Gordian’s 2022 “State of Facilities in Higher Education” report, 30% of the 52,000-plus North American college campus buildings it tracks are in the 10- to 25-year age group and the major systems in many of them will soon reach the end of their lives.

Similarly, schools are debating what to do with the large portfolio of buildings first constructed in the 1960s and 1970s that are often subpar in terms of craftmanship and difficult to repurpose, the report said.

Those decisions will be more difficult as the U.S. higher-education system faces enrollment challenges with a projected decline in high school gradates. Total postsecondary U.S. college enrollment, including both undergraduate and graduate students, decreased by 4.1%, or about 685,000 students, this past spring, compared to a year earlier, according to a report by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

“This wave of renovation needs will be cresting just as the enrollment cliff is hitting full stride, eroding access to students and the revenue necessary to address a deluge of needs,” the report said, noting there was a 19% reduction in college facility capital investment in 2021, likely due to pressures from the pandemic.

Housing in Hartford?

There is also an active off-campus apartment market near Storrs, with thousands of units owned by private landlords and investors. And there have been several noteworthy deals in the area in the past few years, including the sale of the popular Carriage House Townhomes at 183 Huntington Lodge/20 Carriage House Drive in the Storrs section of Mansfield. The 65-unit, 129-bed complex sold in April 2021 for $11.2 million.

In June, another 45-unit apartment complex at 87 Ruby Road in Willington sold for $5.5 million.

Beyond Storrs, UConn only provides housing at its Stamford branch, which in 2017 debuted a new six-story, 116-unit residential building in the heart of the city at 900 Washington Blvd. That building houses 300 students.

Cruickshank also said that while she currently sees UConn’s Hartford branch as largely a “commuter campus” she is hoping that label can change in the future.

“There is definitely some interest in (student housing) in Hartford,” she said. “We haven’t actually started a project on it, but as far as we know, the city is interested. We do not know, at this point, what that would look like. We don’t yet have a settled strategic plan for the Hartford campus.”

UConn’s other two satellite campuses are in Waterbury and Groton. In Waterbury, UConn officials said, there is nearby housing that landlords market to UConn students and others. Most Groton campus students live in private apartments and houses.