When I was growing up, almost everyone I knew who wasn’t an only child shared a bedroom at some point in their life before graduating high school. Now that tends to be the exception for a lot of kids. And there are a lot of kids who never shared a bathroom. Typical dorm life will involve a huge adjustment for them (or maybe schools will adapt at least to some degree).
And if you look at a lot of the rec facilities available to college students, many will have trouble finding similar facilities and/or affording them when they graduate. At one point on a college tour my wife commented that the gym to which she pays to belong had two of a given piece of equipment often times with a wait and the college we were touring had 30 (none of them in use at the time of course).
My college freshman is living in a dorm where the heat regularly goes out, the hot water is shaky, the food is horrible there’s not even a pool on campus and she’s loving her college experience.
A lazy river is an expensive facility above and beyond other rec center amenities such as gym and pool facilities in the JMU link. These are university facilities, not limited to dorm residents (their amenities are another cost versus value issue and thread).
Facilities such as rec centers and student unions/centers wear out and do need replacement and upgrades to reflect current society. Student fees pay for them. In recent times UW (Madison) students voted (those that cared to) to have fees increase to update some student facilities. Multiply a relatively small increase in fees (the same of in and OOS) and you generate significant funds at a large campus. No lazy river there! The facilities that were fairly new in my era are certainly old by now and updates needed. Renovating both unions was a good thing as well.
UW has updated HVAC, furniture and plumbing in dorms along with building more, one is over 100 years old. Same good a la carte food service since my day- with computer updating and contemporary food choices.
Memory- lived in the lakeshore area and one cold winter day two dorm floor women came back from swimming at the nearby Nat. with frozen long hair.
“it also makes a lot of money for the colleges and universities.”
I don’t know that this is true. I’m not usually seeing inside university budgets. I would be surprised to learn that the housing operation is a cash cow with money flowing to other parts of the university. Usually there are bitter turf wars over money raised by a given department. Even crummy dorms cost a lot to run. Old and outdated buildings may need way more maintenance, fuel, etc. than newer ones.
If, however, revamped facilities help with recruitment and retention, especially of full-pay students, that will have a huge impact on the bottom line. Enrollment managers know recruiting costs per student down to the last nickel.
Some of the recreational facilities at colleges are money makers from the communities too. U of Denver has a great facility and many from the community belong to the gym there and yes, it has several climbing walls (no lazy river). DU has a lot of my money from gymnastics, ice skating, hockey, swimming, camps, and summer day care. Other kids we know have taken music lessons and performed in the gorgeous theater, done Destination Imagination competitions at the school, had their birthday parties there. All these activities also provide employment for the students who are teaching gymnastics, ice skating, hockey…
The arena is used non-stop for high school graduations in the month of May. I’m not sure the students are paying more for better facilities because they are in constant use and bring in revenue.
Luxury resort features are nice, sure. But are they the priority for most families? Of course not. In the real world, the #1 priority is affordability and #2 priority is fit.
My daughter turned her nose up at the lazy river campus (too rural) and the coolest-climbing-wall campus (too much of a party school) and picked the one with the sorry-looking campus because it was in the middle of a world-class city.
I guess the Hudson is a lazy river of sorts. Our son enjoys rowing on it. There is a climbing wall, mostly to train students to rappel from helicopters. Facilities/food/dorms? Not so much. As an only child growing up with a haven of a bedroom and a private bath, those communal showers took a bit of getting used to. And he doesn’t have much freedom with clothing or hairstyle. But his college does have toys. Big, big toys. The school has an enormous budget and doesn’t charge tuition or R&B.
I think in places with long cold winters and little daylight from October till March there is a case to be made for facilities like a recreational indoor pool with hot tubs, sauna, a rest area with daylight lamps, changing over to redlight after sundown, and good facilities for indoor exercise - low threshold, so you get as many students as possible to participate.
And good food - lots of fresh veggies, meat and seafood, farm to table wherever possible. I’m sure some people would think that a luxury and say what’s wrong with surviving on pizza, pasta and Cornflakes - YMMV on that one.
The high cost LACs we toured had run of the mill facilities, but excellent academics. I don’t think the choice is between high cost, luxury amenities and lower cost, few amenities.
All cadets are paid a small salary starting Plebe year that increases each year. Two weeks ago, the junior class got their $36K Cow Loans (commission launch money). Service academy kids are well taken care of. I guess that’s a luxury of sorts.
Will depend on the university. Won’t work for all. But for many I cannot see how it doesn’t. Given a captive audience and monopoly at many colleges (for a year or two anyways) if you are not making money on your room and board you are doing it wrong. Though showing that on financial statements is a very different story.
Colleges are looking at having developers own, finance, construct and manage housing on campuses. College will just sign up kids to live there, collect the payments with tuition statements and take a cut of the revenue. Its for profit developers so they are making money. Colleges (at least many of them) can certainly do the same in terms of making money.
Nothing wrong with that. Just part of the big business that college has become. And it gives them money for other purposes (including building newer and better facilities for students and staff).
“if you are not making money on your room and board you are doing it wrong.”
Maybe, but it doesn’t follow that the profit goes to the university’s general operation fund as opposed to staying within the housing or facilities umbrella.
I forgot which school revisited that has a water slide in the pool. Purdue used to boast for their food court but they have decided to cut back on food quality in order to keep the cost of attendance lower. It seems each school comes up with something to attract students. Quite often, those projects are funded by private donations.
I’m with @timetoshine that a convenient and reasonably well-equipped rec center was important. My kids have always done better with focusing when they exercise - in high school they ran cross-country and track, and lived/worked at Boy Scout camp in the summers, and I also maintained Planet Fitness memberships for them.
I would gladly pay for their membership at an off-campus facility, however if the gym is close by then it’s easier and takes less time to make exercise part of their day. My daughter ended up working as a ref and then supervisor for rec sports, and my son has a job at the rock wall at his school.
My daughter was at a school with “dorms like palaces”, my son lives in a frat house that I prefer not to enter. Housing and food were definitely not deal breakers - but a decent rec center was a checklist item for us. Lazy river - wouldn’t have been a factor. Lots of equipment and a variety of group exercise classes at convenient times - that was a consideration.
The best university indoor climbing wall in the US is at U of I in Moscow, Idaho.
Amenities were not even considered by any of our kids when deciding on colleges. That said, our state school had very nicely maintained amenities for the students. It has a luxurious workout facility with a good rock wall and a 160 person hot tub. Pool tables in the union were free and very nice.
It was a bit surprising to see the shabbiness of some of the details at Notre Dame when S2 got there. He only went once to the old, small climbing wall inside the Rockne Memorial Gym. There were no tips on the pool cues and the tables had real issues. Last week they opened the new Duncan Student Center with more exercise options and a decent wall. I don’t know if this is a response to the amenities arms race or just a much-needed refresh.
Speaking for myself as an applicant, universal residential colleges/houses (Harvard, Yale, Rice, Caltech, etc.) were a gigantic, game-changing plus. That’s really a facilities matter; if Stanford suddenly decided that it wanted all the undergrads in colleges, they’d either have to rebuild a ton of their housing stock or tie together a bunch of distant, variably sized buildings under each college banner. Conversely, if Harvard wanted to implement a housing free-for-all with Greek houses, ethnic theme dorms, vegetarian co-ops, etc., it’s hard to imagine how they could make that happen. Once you build 12 equally sized upperclassman dining halls, you’re going to stick with a system of assigning all the students to eat there.
So the campus life philosophy is inextricably tied together with the physical plant.
