Kaylee Jones
Managing Editor
On Jan. 29, a Cameron press release announced an increase in housing and board rates for the 2014-2015 academic year.
Approved by the Board of Regents for the University of Oklahoma, Rogers State University and Cameron University, the new rates will be effective Aug. 1, 2014.
Currently, 473 students live in on-campus housing, down from 543 last fall.
Vice President of Student Services, Jennifer Holland, sat down to better explain the increase.
How do our rates compare on a national level?
“If you look at our rates compared to other institutions across the state, we’re still very, very low.
If we would have been compared in U.S. News & World Reports lowest room and board rates, we would have been 4th lowest in the nation, so that tells you where we compare in the nation. Even with the increases… we’d still be 6th or 7th in the nation.”
Why have the rates increased?
“For a long time, the university has subsidized housing as a way to grow on-campus population. We’ve worked hard to become a more traditional university. That meant that we had to subsidize housing to get more people to live on campus.
We’re at the point we’ve got to increase our rates to be able to maintain a quality environment.”
What should we see as a result of the increase?
“[In the fall semester,] we are going to make enhancements in the wireless network. That’s going to be one of our priorities – to enhance the wireless network in housing over the summer. One thing we’re adding in Shepler is an ice and water machine.
In Shepler, we will redo a few of the bathrooms over the summer. Last year we did two floors, which is four bathrooms. You should also see some more improvements in the lounges in Shepler.
I hope that they can see an improvement in our work order process, that they see more attentiveness to our work orders and a quicker turnaround. We’ve been responding to them but we’ve not necessarily communicated with students along the way, like: we’ve received your work order, here’s where your work order is in the process, your work order is complete, let us know if you have any further questions. We’ve not done that, so we’re going to move that over into the university system that allows that to do it automatically. I think that’s really going to make a difference to students.”
What can be done to help reduce costs?
“We’ve got to help students better understand how to take care of their spaces because the wear and tear is more than the normal wear and tear. We’ll be increasing the number of health and safety inspections that we do.
If people would treat the facilities like they would their own home, then obviously our issues would be less, but that also means our staff has to treat it like it would be their own home. We’re kind of upping the expectations on that, like if you walk by something there are things that aren’t appealing, let’s fix them, because you would do that in your own home.
I think when we start doing that, then students will follow along and the increased health and safety inspections are going to make a difference.
If we have to come in your room and address it for cleanliness, you might be charged for that. If we have to come in and clean your room or we have to repair something we know was not damaged when you got there, you might be responsible for that. I think that if we can make some changes like that, then we’ll continue to see improvement in the facilities.”