MU thinks lowering the cost of living on campus will boost enrollment

The University of Missouri announced Friday it is cutting by 3.5 percent the cost of eating and living on campus for many students, come fall 2018.

The move represents the university’s second major action to reduce the cost of a higher education on the Columbia campus. Earlier this year MU promised to cover 100 percent of the unmet need on the cost of tuition and fees for all Pell Grant eligible students.

University officials expect both actions will help boost enrollment, which has been shrinking significantly on the campus for the past two years. MU enrollment is 30,870, the lowest since 2008 and down 12.9 percent from the record set in 2015.

Chancellor Alexander Cartwright said Friday that base housing rates for more than one third of the MU housing options will be reduced next year.

Rates on more than 650 community-style, double rooms, about 1,300 beds, will drop an average of 2.2 percent. Rates for 232 double rooms, about 464 beds in Hatch Hall, will drop 5 percent — creating a new economy housing option.

All other housing rates will remain flat.

In addition, university officials said that after talking with students they learned that for some of them existing housing options, even the least expensive, are too costly or lock them into having to pay for more meals than they would like.

So the university now is offering additional dinning plans that include cheaper and more flexible options, said Jeff Zeilenga, dean of students.

“Not every student wants to eat three meals a day,” Zeilenga said.

For the first time MU will allow upperclassmen to live on campus without a meal plan.

Students who elect economy living and dinning plans will be able to live and eat on campus for about $1,000 a month, including utilities, internet, cable, laundry, cleaning of common areas and security, Cartwright told an audience of students faculty and visitors at Friday’s announcement.

With the cost reductions, MU housing rates now start at $714 a month, nearly $350 less than the current least expensive option. Dining plans start at $283 a month, nearly $300 less than the smallest plan available now.

“University leaders expect the plan will result in an overall 3.5 percent reduction in cost for the university’s most commonly selected housing and dining plans,” said Christian Basi, university spokesman.

To reduce dinning rates, university officials had to cut expenses by reorganizing operations, including a reduction in staffing. Dining hall maintenance operations merged with university maintenance, eliminating administrative costs, Zeilenga said.

“Our goal is to ensure that our options are competitive and reduce costs for students and families,” said Gary Ward, interim vice chancellor of Student Affairs and vice chancellor of Operations.

Lowering what it cost to live on campus could attract more upperclassmen to campus housing.

“We are hoping to fill our halls,” Zeilenga said.

This year MU has seven residence halls that are closed, so there is space to bring upperclassmen back to campus and keep students who return after their freshman year from moving off campus.

“Students who live on campus are more likely to stay in school and graduate in four years,” Cartwright said.

In a third big student savings effort, MU is working with other four campuses in the University of Missouri System to expand open educational resource materials, including free text books for some courses. Already because of this effort, MU officials said, 30 percent of courses on the campus already offer class materials for less than $40.

This story was originally published November 3, 2017 at 1:30 PM with the headline "MU thinks lowering the cost of living on campus will boost enrollment."