PennWest, other universities weigh options for unused student housing

“Live here, live well.”

That’s the online pitch promoting “Vulcan Village” apartments near PennWest University’s California campus in Washington County. The student complex has a resort-inspired outdoor pool, around-the-clock maintenance and a fitness center.

But these days, there aren’t enough students living there. Fewer than half of its 770 beds are being used.

Vulcan Village isn’t alone.

On many college campuses, what to do with sparsely populated student housing has become a pressing question. Nationally, there are 1 million fewer college students today than before the pandemic.

At PennWest, created last year through the merger of California University of Pennsylvania, Edinboro University and Clarion University, nearly 1,800 beds of student housing — or 36% of the 4,989 available beds — are empty, according to university data.

Enrollment numbers for this fall showed PennWest’s overall headcount is down 11.5% from last year and 20.5% for first-year students. Still, with 11,305 students, it is Western Pennsylvania’s largest state-owned university.

“PennWest is reviewing its overall physical space across the three campuses,” spokeswoman Wendy Mackall said.

At California, two buildings that “reached the end of their life cycle were demolished,” while faculty and staff offices were moved into an unused residence hall along with operations such as campus police, Mackall said.

As for on-campus housing, students at California are using 83% of the available beds (997 of 1,200) compared with 79% at Edinboro (1,063 of 1,341) and 48% at Clarion (803 of 1,678), according to PennWest.

Separately, Vulcan Village, located a short shuttle ride away from campus, has an occupancy rate of about 45% with 345 of 770 beds in use, the university said.

Last year, Edinboro received permission from the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education to pursue what would be the first dorm sale by any of the 10 member universities, spokesman Kevin Hensil said at the time.

Edinboro initially proposed selling two of the eight buildings in its upscale suite-style complex, The Highlands. Finished in 2011, Highlands 7 and 8 are separated by trees and parking from the other six buildings in the complex. The campus reopened Highlands 7 to student housing this fall “due to student requests for semi-private housing,” and 142 of the 155 beds are being used, Mackall said.

Elsewhere, talk of how to address available campus space has turned to inter-generational living, which mixes college students with young professionals looking for affordable housing or retirees drawn to lifelong learning opportunities.

A pioneering example is found at Lasell Village, a senior living development at Lasell University in Newtown, Mass.

The 13-acre development, shared with the private suburban university, is promoted as offering mutual benefits for young and old.

“Both college students and village residents benefit from interacting through shared courses, class modules, research projects, internships and mentoring, as well as in the community itself where students often serve as wait staff, lifeguards, interns and volunteers,” its website says.

The nation’s older population is growing and, with it, demand for senior housing. The trajectory is different now for higher education, with fewer college-age adults, increased concerns about college costs and student debt and an improved job market for students right out of high school.

Other state system campuses have also accumulated unused dorm room inventory in recent years, prompting concerns about upkeep and debt used to build them. And things could get worse.

Experts have warned that fewer births during the Great Recession of 2008 will reach college campuses by 2026, and the resulting enrollment “cliff” isn’t expected to reverse itself soon.

College dorms and residential campuses aren’t going away. Still, rethinking partially unused halls could reduce fixed costs. For instance, the non-personnel operating budget for housing at PennWest is nearly $7.7 million, Mackall said.

Shifting resources could enable higher education to make itself more attractive to a market that is increasingly older, nonresidential and preferring online course options, state system Chancellor Daniel Greenstein told state lawmakers in 2020 during campus merger hearings.

He said the state has been placing too much emphasis on a market that is diminishing, to the detriment of Pennsylvania’s workforce and economic well-being.

“We have to break out of that,” he said.