A place to call home

This is the second part of a four-part series examining the interaction between UAB, students and the city of Birmingham. To read the first part of the series, click on the link here. 

For many universities across the nation, growth is inevitable — especially when you have a reputation like UAB’s, known for its excellence in health care and research.

The school — and the education its faculty provides — has become more renowned both locally and nationally, lending itself to an increase in enrollment in recent years.

As stated in the first installment of this school series in May, UAB had record enrollment for the fall of 2016, jumping up 6.5 percent in the past year to 19,535 students, and school President Ray Watts is aiming to reach 20,000 students by 2018. 

Bradley Barnes, UAB’s vice provost for enrollment management, said the student body could grow well beyond Watts’ goal, possibly reaching 24,000 within the next five years. But as enrollment levels increase, the school, as well as the city, may find itself inundated with students who are looking for housing options.

‘OVERFLOW HOUSING’

“I guess all through high school, I knew I wanted to go into health care, and I looked at schools that provided a lot of opportunity in those areas,” junior Joanne Jacobs, from Flowery Branch, Georgia, said of her choice to attend UAB. “UAB really felt like an urban campus, so there were more opportunities for students to get out there, and when you stand on the Green, you see four different medical institutions.”

Hoover resident and sophomore Hassan Sadruddin had similar sentiments.

“I found UAB because, growing up here, it was well-known to be the best pre-med and med school in the state … but when I got to campus and was in Birmingham on a daily basis, I realized that it was very underrated,” he said.

Like other surrounding colleges such as Samford, UAB requires enrolled freshmen to live on campus unless they live within one of the seven surrounding counties: Bibb, Blount, Chilton, Jefferson, Shelby, St. Clair or Walker. 

“Probably for the last 15 years, research has supported the notion that if a student lives on campus their freshman year, they are more likely to do better and complete school,” said Marc Booker, executive director of housing and dining.

If a student stays on campus an additional year, the numbers nearly double, he said. 

Requiring students to start their college years on campus also allows them to learn what Booker calls “those fundamental, basic life skills of conflict resolution,” such as being assertive, how to address conflicts with civility and how to get along with others. 

It’s also pushing UAB to become a more multi-modal or traditional campus rather than a commuter campus, as more students live on campus past their freshman year. 

After the freshmen have lived with a roommate in a residence hall for nine months, they can transition to live off campus or, preferably, in apartment-style housing on campus, Booker said.

For those students looking to live on campus, there are six residence halls. The earliest residence hall was built in 1972, and since 2000, UAB has added three additional residence halls for a total of 2,880 beds for students. 

According to a report by the Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Analysis, in fall 2016 there were 2,021 freshmen enrolled, 1,469 of whom lived in on-campus housing. This leaves a little less than half of the university’s bed selection for returning students who wish to live on campus.

Booker said that the university has been at or close to 100 percent housing capacity since 2012, and in the 10 years prior, UAB was between 90 and 98 percent full. As more students wanted to live on campus, the demand exceeded supply, which was in part due to construction and renovations being done on some of the residence halls.

To mitigate the issue, UAB worked with The Venue, neighboring Regions Field on 16th Street South, to offer close-to-campus housing to subsidize. Booker said there are 101 students living in the complex.

“When we provide them off-campus space, we charge a rate that is commensurate with what they would receive on campus, and then the difference would be absorbed by the institution,” Booker said, calling the situation “overflow housing.”

“Essentially, we ran out of rooms, and we went back to those students who already had rooms [and offered them a space at The Venue]. And that’s the [101] who chose to live there,” he said.

After agreeing to live at The Venue, their space in the residence halls was filled with other students.

With The Venue as a viable option for “overflow housing,” Booker said their number of beds grows to 3,000, which he feels, “pretty good with … for the foreseeable future,” although UAB is currently taking a close look at housing through a housing and dining study.

Many students look beyond the confines of university specific housing, too.

OFF (BUT NEAR) CAMPUS

Senior Andrew Whitfield lives about a mile from campus in an apartment, and said when he was looking for housing, he took into account various factors.

“I would say it depends on whether it’s new or old, obviously, but it also depends on how close it is,” he said. “I think that plays a really big factor, because I know there’s an apartment complex about a stone’s throw away from the engineering building, and I wanted to live there, and I found out it was like, $800 a month, and I was not about that.”

Given the walkability of downtown Birmingham and the UAB campus, many students look for housing within a reasonable distance from their classes so they can either walk or take the Blazer Express to campus. 

Brad Cleage, director of J.H. Berry & Gilbert, Inc. Multi-Family, said he thinks there are reasonable options, too, no matter what students are looking for.

“The multifamily housing industry is really hot right now,” he said, both locally and nationally. Cleage said he’s seen quite an increase in investing and renovating products, which are later rented.

“As people spend more on those renovated units, I think that gives people a lot more options.”

While much of where students may be living depends on price, Cleage said he believes there is something for everyone near the campus.

“I think the two uses, both [UAB provided] housing, on the campus, and private provided housing adjacent [to the university] are complementary,” said UAB Director of Planning, Design and Construction James Fowler. “I’m appreciative that there seems to be a variety of options both on and around campus.”

Eli Ussery, a junior from Columbus, Georgia, found Cleage’s beliefs to be true when he decided to move off campus. After living on campus his freshman year, he and friends went searching for apartments and found housing that he described as in their “possibility spectrum” about 15 minutes from campus.

“It was pretty easy to find something … even in the middle of summer,” he said, mentioning that there were dozens of places available.

Jane Hoerner, director of marketing for Bayer Properties, said when they opened The Pizitz downtown they thought the apartments would appeal to young professionals in the city. They see their market as those who “value a walkable urban lifestyle,” and many of their current residents work downtown. And although they cater to all types of residents, the apartments haven’t been marketed toward students.

“But, it has also proved to be attractive to people of all ages,” she said, adding they have received interest from residents of all demographics. “We think it’s a great choice for people who want to live downtown.”

As of recently, a variety of complexes have opened, including The Pizitz, putting hundreds of additional beds on the market for both students and professionals.

Some students also take advantage of University Heights, which is a type of apartment-style living in Homewood. J.C. Meyers with University Heights said all of their apartments are three bedrooms, totaling 535 bed spaces, but each bed has its own rent, and the majority of students who live there commute to UAB.

“That way, you aren’t worrying about if your roommate has paid their half,” Meyers said. It’s a way that University Heights caters more to the student lifestyle. She said when most students are in the search for housing, they are mostly concerned with proximity and price.

Sadruddin also lives off campus in a complex nearby. He said he decided to make the switch after his family could afford it, but he found it more difficult to find a space that was within his price range, close to campus and safe.

“It took four months. A lot of it was word of mouth,” he said. “Things booked up so fast … Housing is extremely tight, and the prices are skyrocketing.” He mentioned that when he looked at University House, some of the rooms were already booked for students who were graduating from high school the following year.

Sadruddin added that he looked at rent on the Northside and Southside in the past 10 years, and prices have increased about 25 percent.

“There is not much … unless you’re looking at Pizitz,” he said.

AFFORDABILITY

For the 2016-17 school year, on-campus housing prices ranged from $2,770 to $4,340 per semester depending on the number of students living together and the selected residence hall. Broken down into a four-month semester, students may pay between $692 and $1,085 per month to live on campus for the school year, and even then, they may be sharing a room.

Other nearby apartments listed on the UAB off-campus housing service webpage run anywhere from $403 to $945 per bedroom per month excluding utilities, and higher-end apartments downtown, such as Flats on Fourth or The Pizitz, can range from the mid-$900s to the low-$2,000s per month for different apartment layouts.

Depending on the level of quality, prices and conveniences students are accustomed to, there may be a shortage of what they consider “affordable housing” in the downtown area. Others, however, are able to afford it, leading to a mixture of student and professional housing.

“We expect that there will always be demand for housing adjacent to campus,” Fowler said. “We think that’s going to be a part of how UAB should grow, is in partnership with the community.”

University Heights, although mainly filled with students, does house a few families and young professionals, Meyers said. She added that like many complexes and housing situations, there are occasionally some problems, such a noise complaints and parking troubles, between local residents and students. 

“Coming from conventional housing, that was a lot of what I would deal with,” she said. She considered University Heights to be more similar to student housing than conventional housing. “That’s part of why the students end up getting the bad rap that they do … They’re spreading their wings; they’re testing the waters.”

William Keasler, who has lived in Southside for about 10 years, and previously lived on 34th Street for 19 years, said he has dealt with excess noise from students living in the area in the past. “But, I kind of get used to that,” he said. “I get along with them pretty well.”

Randy Williams, who has lived all over the Southside area throughout his entire life, said he has almost always lived near students in some capacity and that he’s had good interactions with them.

“[My experiences] have been great,” he said. “I haven’t had any problems.” He added that he doesn’t recall his sister, who has lived in the area for 10 years, ever having problems either. 

Some students may choose to venture a little farther from campus, too, into surrounding neighborhoods, although commute times may increase alongside rental prices.

Compared to the downtown area, Homewood, Vestavia and Mountain Brook don’t offer as many “affordable” apartment or rental house options, and students would be paying more in taxes and city fees. They would also be competing with families who are searching for housing in specific school districts for their children and who have more savings to spend on housing. 

To help ease the growing pains, UAB is in the process of creating a plan that features many facets, including housing.

FUTURE PLANS

The university’s first Campus Master Plan was developed in 2001 and aimed at guiding the physical shape and growth of the campus. A housing master plan was started shortly after in 2003.

UAB Facilities Division then chose to revisit their initial plan in 2015 and worked with staff, faculty, community stakeholders and city of Birmingham representatives to guide the physical development of the campus in a manner that supports the five pillars of the university’s strategic plan: education, research, patient care, community and global service and economic development, according to a December 2016 article from UAB News.

With this new campus plan, the university will be able to “refocus its efforts to capture an overall vision for campus development in the next five years and serve as a foundation and beyond,” which includes taking a look at housing.

“The way incoming freshmen are coming in with bigger and bigger classes, they are trying to accommodate that,” Sadruddin said, citing such improvements as the Campus Green and the new recreation center. “I’m really happy to see where it’s headed.”

“I don’t think the growth would be a bad thing,” Jacobs said. “I think the new buildings are exciting.”

Since the creation of the second master plan in 2015, UAB made plans to work on various buildings around campus such as the School of Business, the New College of Arts and Sciences, the police headquarters and the School of Nursing.

The inclusion of these buildings throughout the city of Birmingham would allow UAB to be more comprehensive, as each area of the campus relates to a different element of the university. The academic campus is arranged in its own area adjacent to athletics and research, and research is between the academic campus and the hospital.

“It’s kind of evolved into that, [grouping things together], and I think in most respects we’re going to keep heading in that direction,” said James Fowler, director of design, planning and construction at UAB. “But, I think we are pretty flexible just depending on what the specific need is.”

But the area already being fairly built-up limits options for growth.

By 2020, UAB wants to “accommodate growth compactly and in appropriate locations” and “continue transition from a commuter to a [multi-modal] campus,” among other goals, the Campus Master Plan said.

Booker said the university is looking to provide space for 15-17 percent of its student population within the upcoming years. This could mean an additional 700-800 beds, and Booker said it would include the removal of UAB’s smallest and most historic residence hall, Denman. But, much of the housing decisions are contingent on what their consultants may suggest after completing the current housing and dining study.

Currently, the university is undergoing a housing and dining study provided by consultants to help plan future residence halls and accommodations. 

“So, as part of our housing and dining study, we know our campus population is growing and we hope for it to continue to grow,” Fowler said, noting UAB is looking to create additional housing in the existing campus footprint in the following years. “The [study] is going to tell us exactly, you know, how much that should be and then also make some suggestions on exactly where that should be.”

According to the master plan online, “Additional housing will emerge on the south side of campus to accommodate increasing student enrollment, including housing for a growing international body,” which Fowler said is accurate.

As of early May, Fowler estimated that the plan would be available for public knowledge later in the year. 

“I hope that it helps us grow in a smart way, so that we’re providing a great environment on campus for our students and it provides a good next step for the growth of UAB,” he said. He added that the plan will be updated as new information arises and as the community evolves.

The master plan also presents a glimpse into solutions for another problem the campus is facing: parking.

Regardless of the city, parking can sometimes take up a good portion of travel time. But sometimes, parking can cause students to miss a class, as Sadruddin said he experienced. Instead, he resorted to collecting parking tickets.

“I have a lot of parking tickets, because I’d rather pay the $20 fee than miss a class,” he said.

While UAB is an urban campus that sees a lot of pedestrian and vehicular traffic, officials still are working to address transit and parking concerns by conducting a detailed parking and transportation study.

“I think it [parking] is a very traumatized subject, something students love to complain about,” Jacobs said. “Something I have learned is you do need to allocate 15 to 20 minutes to come to class. And with the construction on campus, there is sometimes parking lots that may not be usable.”

“We are constantly expanding, and they’re doing their best to make sure it’s going to be good for students,” Ussery said, “but while they are doing all this construction, it’s going to be a little difficult for people to find that ‘perfect spot.’”

This is the second in a four-part series examining the interaction between UAB, students and the city of Birmingham. In the July issue of Iron City Ink, look for an in-depth examination of transit and parking resources for both students and residents of the city.