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NEEDS ASSESSMENT
St. Mary’s University has experienced residence hall occupancy levels over 104%, and as high as
110% in the fall semester of 2012, over the last eight years. Overcrowding has forced students to
live in converted study rooms and social lounges; areas never meant or designed to permantly
house studnets, much less be used as temporary living quarters. The overcrowding problem is
forcing more students to seek living spaces off campus. However, living off campus can impact
the students academic achievement, their social and civic development and intigration as a
member into the university community, and perhaps more worringly, increased financial
obligation and student debt. The construction of a new residence hall will help to alliveate these
problems, but if no action to solve this overcrowding problem is taken, students who may
overwise have no other place to live while in school due to family, financial, academic or many
other reasons, may be forced to miss out on these crucial academic and personal growh
opportunitues and be forced to find alternative living conditions, simply because, through no
fault of their own, there was not enough space.
SOCIAL BENEFITS OF LIVING ON CAMPUS
Studies show the many social benefits of residing on campus. On a basic level, residents have
more of an opportunity to develop the life-long friendships that so many value and look to for
support during and after their school experiences, have more interaction with peers, mentors, and
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professors outside of class. Residents enjoy almost instant access to diverse cultural and artistic
events, presentations and dialogues that so often present new points of views and inspire new
thinking in young minds, while the chance for more involvement in campus activities such as
student government, professional associations and post graduate experience is also increased in
residents (OSU 2013). Researcher Jillian Bush stuied the effects of extracurricular activities on
dropout rates and found that there was a quite high association degree between being involved in
campus activities and staying in school. Simply put the more a student is in involved in school,
the more commited they tend to be (Bush 2003). Research by Oegon State University found that
living in residence halls also lead to a greater satisfaction by the student of their overall college
experience (OSU 2013).
ACADEMIC BENEFITS OF LIVING ON CAMPUS
Quite simply, livingon campus leads to higher academic achievement. A recent study found that
“…living on campus causes college students to perform better in school…leads to an increase in
GPA…and at any time is shown to increase both cumulative and semester GPA. (de Araujo and
Murray 2010). The University of North Carolina at Charlotte found that residents are more likely
to graduate in less time and enter graduate school (UNCC 2013). Enforced nightly quite times
are conductive to student study, the opportunity to live with people of the same major or
academic interest, and the availability of high speed internet access and computer labs also lead
to a more conductive acadmeic atmosphere. On a basic level, residnets are closer to their classes
than those living off campus, reducing the chance of either missing a class or arriving late.
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FINANCIAL ASPECTS OF LIVING ON CAMPUS VS. OFF CAMPUS
Obtaining a higher education can be expensive and living off campus can add to those expenses
contributing to the ever increasing student loan debt problem faced by millions of students.
When a student lives off campus on heir own or with roomates, expenses, often unforeseen by
those away from home for the first time, such as gas, electricity, phone and internet can often
overwhelm and add up quite quickly. The cost of communting to school can also be an issue as
the price of gas is on avaerage now approaching $3.50 a gallon (AAA 2013). In San Antonio,
using data collected in 2009, the median cost of an apartment was $754 (City Data 2013), with a
ulitities median of $214 (City Data 2013). Adjusted for inflation for 2013 using the US Inflation
Calculator (www.usinflationclaculator.com), these figures are approximately $816 and $232
respectively. Add these together and multiply by twelve months and the result is $12,576 ($816
+ $232 x 12 months). This amount does not include food or transportation, nor does it include
the ancillay costs of living off campus such as insurance, internet access, monthly bills or
nonfinancial costs such as commuting time, parking, or walking to and from the parking lot. As
of the 2013-2014 academic year information, the most expensive residence room and meal plan
at St. Mary’s combined is $9,110 (stmarytx.edu/residence-life 2013. Subtracting the first number
from the last a savings of $3,466 per student is discovered when comparing those that live on
campus to those that live off campus.
It is clear that the academic, financial and social benefits of living on campus far outweigh the
expense, inconvience, and pressure that living off campus contributes. Students are consistantly
shown to be more involved, achieve more academcally, and save thousands of dollars over the
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course of their education. For the current and future students of St. Mary’s University, the
construction of a new residence hall will give these students the opportunites they deserve to
enter the world after graduation as well prepared as we can get them.
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Work Breakdown Schedule
Project: Hypothetical design and construction of a new residence hall at St. Mary’s University
1. Call for general campus meetings with students for residence hall ideas/needs, etc
1.1 Meet with current students, incoming freshman and transfer students
1.2 Meet with recent alumni who lived on campus (last 5 years)
1.3 Compile information from above meetings
1.3.1 Disseminate above information on university website for community input
1.3.1.1 – Compile community input for board meeting
2. Board of Trustees meeting(s)
2.1 – Distribute information gathered from above meetings
2.1.1 – meet with student/staff representatives to go over information
2.2 – Decide basic parameters/designs of new hall
2.2 – Finalize call for designs/architects and deadline for submissions
2.2.1 – Distribute call via letter/web/trade magazines/board contacts
2.3 – Gather all submissions once deadline has passed
2.3.1 – Pull top five submissions
2.3.2 – Publicize top five submissions for public viewing
2.3.2.1 – Call a university wide meeting to discuss submissions
2.4 – With university input, board of trustees will decide on design/architect
3. Apply for appropriate initial building permits
3.1 – City
3.1.1 - Approval – move to Level 4 preparations
3.1.2 – Non-approval – gather information and reapply
3.2 – State
3.2.1 - Approval – move to Level 4 preparations
3.2.2 - Non-approval – gather information and reapply
4. Break ground
4.1 – Official ceremony
4.1.1 – Invite Board members, senior university staff, city council members,
distinguished alum, etc.
4.1.2 – Contact media
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4.1.3 – Perform ceremony
4.2 – Begin preparation for official clearing of land
4.2.1 – Solicit bids for clearing land
4.2.1.1 – Review bids
4.2.2 – Begin clearing of land with lowest bid
5. Construction
5.1 – Solicit construction bids
5.1.1 – Review construction bids received
5.1.1.1 – Investigate previous projects, etc.
5.1.1.2 – Visit previous and in process building projects
5.2 – Award construction contract
5.3 – Foundation
5.3.1 – Periodic city/builder/university/inspection
5.4 – Exterior
5.4.1 - Periodic city/builder/university/inspection
5.5 – plumbing
5.6 – Electrical
5.7 – Final city/fire inspection before occupancy
6. Interior furnishings
6.1 – Distribute call to local furniture manufacturers/distributors for bids
6.2 – Collect and award furniture bids
6.3 – Deliver furnishings
7. Grand opening
7.1 – Invite Board members, senior university staff, city council members, distinguished
alum, etc. for initial walkthrough and presentation
7.2 – Contact media for walkthrough and information session
7.3 – university communications walkthrough for photo documentation and brochure
creation
8. Official opening
8.1 – Final walkthrough
8.1.2 – final repairs, if any
8.2 – Final cleaning
9. Inaugural student check in
9.1 – After first week, conduct survey among residents about any building/service issues
9.1.1 - If necessary, address above issues
9.2 – Conduct survey again after first month
9.2.1 – If necessary, address above issues
9.3 – Conduct end of semester inspection
9.3.1 – Address maintenance issues as needed during semester break
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References
American Automobile Association. 2013. Gas Prices. http://ww1.texas.aaa.com/en-tx/driving-
resources/trip-planning-maps/Pages/gas-prices.aspx (April 5, 2013).
Bush, Jilann. 2003. “The Effect of Extracurricular Activities on School Dropout.”
http://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/psych_honproj/16 (April 6 2013).
De Araujo, Pedro and James Murray. 2010. “Academic Effects of Living on Campus.”
http://papers.ssrn.com.sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1628371 (April 6, 2013).
Mantel, S.J. et al. 2008. Project Management in Practice 3rd
ed. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
Oregon State University. 2013. Benefits of Living on Campus.
http://oregonstate.edu/uhds/benefits (April 6, 2013).
San Antonio, Texas. City Data 2009. http://www.city-data.com/city/San-Antonio-Texas.html
(April 6, 2013).
St. Mary’s University. 2013. Office of Institutional Effectiveness – University Profile – 2012
Profile – Student Development. http://www.stmarytx.edu/institutional-
effectiveness/pdf/7-FA12UniversityProfile-StudentDevelopment.pdf (April6, 2013).
St. Mary’s University. Residence Life – Room and Board Rates.
http://www.stmarytx.edu/residence-life/index.php?site=housingRoomBoardRates
(April6, 2013)
University of North Carolina at Charlotte. 2013. Advantages to Living on Campus.
http://housing.uncc.edu/future-residents/why-live-campus (April 5, 2013).
US Inflation Calculator. http://usinflationcalculator.com/ (April 5, 2013).
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