Guess how much a Lancer living in university managed housing pays on average for room and board per month for 2016-2017?
$1,188.87.
I derived the total by averaging the costs of available meal plans and housing options, then adding them together. However, I would like to note that I didn't research statistics to weight the numbers, but I think that my number is a pretty good snapshot.
For a more conservative estimate, the proportion of Lancers living in dorms which is slightly cheaper even after the obligatory, more expensive meal plan options, may drive the average lower. For simplicity’s sake, I will use an approximated $1,100 per month as the average. In theory, that’s about $36.66 per day for room and food.
Longwood residence halls don’t provide a $1,100 per month living experience.
I have nothing against my roommate, who is a fantastic human being, nor against my suite-mates, who are also lovely people. It’s just that the average rent for two beds in Farmville is $678. Much of the cost of living is by household and not person, so let’s do some math.
Internet and cable will at most be $50 a month, and we’ll assume that groceries per person per month are about $200 between two people. Add in some dining out (let’s say $30 per week per person), and we’re up to $928.
Let’s call, utilities at $72 so we’re up to $1,000. Gas in Farmville is about $2 a gallon, and Farmville is 8.2 square miles. Let’s make the assumption of vehicle ownership and say the car is kind of a clunker and needs about $30 of maintenance a month. Let’s say it gets only 20 mpg, but you’ll likely only be traveling about 2 miles a day (or 10 per week or 40 per month) to and from Longwood, so transportation costs relating exclusively to Longwood are going to be about $4 a month in gas and $30 in maintenance. Doubling $34 is $68, so that brings our cost per month up to about $1,068. Obviously there are other costs of living (like additional groceries or non-Longwood transport), but we’re only talking about things that you pay for through RCL.
Okay, so that’s about $1,000, not much less than the “$1,100 a month living experience,” but for three things:
1. It’s still cheaper by $100-$200 a month.
2. It’s a higher quality of living. We’re talking about an apartment or small house here.
3. That approximate $1,000 is for two people.
So really, it’s about $534 a month if you have a roomie. That doesn’t include the stuff you already pay for while living on campus, so your cost of living will be $500 plus whatever else, but on campus it’s $1,100 plus whatever else.
Okay, but why?
It’s not like school has a mortgage on Wheeler or South Ruffner (built in 1960 and 1900 respectively) and the expenses are in bulk, which is usually cheaper than on a smaller scale.
The school’s answer is essentially that the inclusion of auxiliary services and maintenance is what drives up the cost.
According to Jean Wilwohl, associate director of occupancy management, the rent is calculated each year by the budget office with a variety of factors in mind.
“How it works, I’ll send the budget office how many students and how many beds we have, and send it the budget office. They calculate the rates for the year to be able to meet our bills for utilities, heat, electricity, water, all those types of things,” Wilwohl explained. And then those rates get proposed to the board of visitors, and the board of visitors approves or rejects those proposed rates.
The board of visitors and budget office ultimately make the decisions on the budget.
“So ultimately, the office of Residential and Commuter Life isn’t necessarily involved in determining what the rate will be. That’s where the university’s budget office are really the ones who determine the rates based on paying for utilities, water, internet, cable that will be in those rooms, any upkeep and things like that," said Wilwohl.
According to Wilwohl, the university doesn't aim to make a profit.
“Typically each year, you see about a three percent increase from one year to the next. And that’s just because of utility rates,” Wilwohl noted. “That’s not that much. We’re not trying to make a profit, but we have to make sure we have enough money, not just for the utilities but for any upkeep. If there’s any painting that needs to be done and to make sure there’s enough furniture, we don’t want to have the same furniture forever, we need to have money for that.”
According to Wilwohl, the fact that the rooms are all-inclusive and have on-site staff drives up the cost.
“Our apartments are fully furnished, we have cable, internet in place. We also have staff for emergency situations. There is always someone available to assist a student, 24/7, where if you’re living in an apartment community that’s not necessarily going to be the case,” she said.
Despite that, the university usually makes a profit from housing, but the amount varies drastically year-to-year. For example in the 2016-17 budget, the estimated surplus is zero, but for 2014-15 it’s a whopping $581,391, according to the Operating Budgets and Plans, available for the fiscal years from 2006-07 on Longwood University's website.
This was confirmed by Susan Osborne, Longwood University’s budget director.
“Housing and Dining normally do make a profit or at least break even. There are no state funds used for housing and dining or other auxiliary services,” said Osborne.
The funds, however, are kept separate for housing related purposes.
“The funds for these activities are kept in separate funds and any profit is used to fund future expenses. For example to build a new dining hall or pay for remodeling," she said. "In the case of housing the reserves are normally used to fund new debt related to remodeling or building additional housing. The reserves can also be used for unexpected expenses, for example, replacing a chiller that quits working before its normal life."
Ken Copeland, vice president of administration of finance, pointed out that the budget and how finances actually work out are not necessarily the same thing.
“Sometimes the actual financial performance mirrors the budgets – sometimes our enrollment of housed students is smaller than anticipated so the actual revenue is less than what’s budgeted. Often when we budget a small surplus it’s due to a planned maintenance project – and likewise if there is a surplus budgeted it often means that we don’t have plans for big maintenance projects.”
Copeland also noted that “budgeted surplus” is not the same as “profit.”
“Please also understand that the term 'budgeted surplus' is more appropriate than 'profit' – which infers that the university spends those funds elsewhere. All auxiliary buildings have to be maintained by the University with no financial assistance from the Commonwealth of Virginia," said Copeland. "The responsibility of the University to maintain by using the fees, other than tuition, that the students pay. Costs each year escalate – most notably utilities and labor costs. We try to plan for these escalations and often the cost escalations occur.”
What this means, to my understanding, is that the university can only make an educated guess at what auxiliary costs will be, and sometimes the reality is lower or higher than expected. Costs go up with the general assumption that labor and other costs will go up.
So that’s why the rent is so damn high.
With that information in mind, I still don’t think that the cost for room and board is justified. There’s no truly detailed reports available, and despite the uncertainty regarding how the budget will work out, the rate goes up at a, more or less, consistent rate. It’s already almost double what a comparable situation in Farmville would be and if you ask around students who live off-campus, one of the reasons is almost always cost.
The other part of this that doesn’t sit well with me is the lack of transparency and effort to communicate the how and why of the cost of housing. The budgets don’t accurately reflect what surpluses will be, and trying to find answers will get you shuffled from department to department. I’m not the only one who thinks the rent is too much, and I think the student body as a whole would appreciate greater transparency regarding the matter.
