Photo Credits – “September Campus-2” (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) by West Chester University
As a result of the largest incoming freshmen class in West Chester University’s history, students and their families had to scramble to find housing for the 2022-2023 school year — both on and off campus.
The Daily Local News states that there are three thousand incoming freshmen this year enrolled at West
Chester University, with a 31% increase in out-of-state students and a 22% increase in students demonstrating the most financial need by being recipients of Federal Pell Grants.
WCU has guaranteed housing for freshmen, but this year, a larger freshman class has resulted in housing issues. The twelve buildings between WCU-owned and USH (affiliated) house more than 5,300 students, which is close to a third of the total undergraduate enrollment at WCU.
North Campus Housing being full with incoming students has affected upperclassmen housing as well.
Students living on South Campus — which is reserved for returning and transfer students — have been offered money by the university to move off-campus as a way to give more students the opportunity to live in the apartments.
An email sent to a student living in the South Campus Apartments states, “Cancel your housing contract for Fall 2022, and you will receive a $3,800 Housing-Demand Grant applied toward your fall 2022 tuition.”
USH has denied applications for students attempting to live in their buildings after placing them on their extensive waitlist. Traditional hall dorms, such as Schmidt, Goshen, Tyson and Killinger, have begun to convert their lounges into four-person dorm rooms to accommodate the overflow of students.
With all of this being said, students began to scramble at the last minute to find housing — sometimes during the heat of the summer, where demand for housing is high and the supply is low. Students have taken matters into their own hands by finding places outside of West Chester, some as close as Exton or others even as far as Wilmington, DE. Niche.com currently states that the median rent in West Chester is $1,293/mo – a 15% increase than the national average at $1,096/mo.
The university has had this issue for at least a decade, as landlords and/or property managers in the borough of West Chester are required to obtain student-housing-zoned licenses in order to have students as tenants. In an article from July 3, 2012, The Daily Local News writes, “[The] Borough Council has adopted an ordinance designed to stop the expansion of student housing in the Town Center.” In other words, the Borough Council created a new law designed to keep student housing at a limit. The council President at-the-time, Holly Brown stated that they did so to ensure the “Town Center [could] be for everyone and not … completely [filled with] students.”
The ripple effect came through when, eight years later, an article from 2020 stated that student-zoned housing has an overall 32% increase in rent prices compared to non-student housing within the Borough of West Chester.
To provide an example of today’s off-campus housing costs for students, there is currently a seven bedroom, two bathroom house available to rent next year for a gross amount of $10,500/mo at the time of writing. Divided evenly amongst the maximum 10 students allowed to live there, $1,050/mo for a bedroom — shared or not — can become a financial burden among students and/or their families. This number is comparable to a one-bedroom unit at Cambridge Hall Apartments, a complex 0.2 miles away from campus. Many students choose to live at Cambridge Hall Apartments because their one-bedroom apartments start at $1,135/mo, an $85 monthly rent increase from sharing a twin with up to nine other students.
With a student population at an all time high and student housing availability at an all time low, the scramble
to find housing continues.
Grace Zwierzyna is a third year Media and Culture major. GZ924682@wcupa.edu
Although I know the bottom line is profit for the university, it’s a bit unethical to accept a class size you are unable to accommodate . The stress upon these kids is high even with a solid plan in place to start college . To knowingly create this situation for then to struggle through just as they begin is wrong.