On par with the university’s goals to increase on-campus housing, about 20 percent of UTD’s almost 19,000 students currently live on campus.
Come fall 2012, however, demand for on-campus housing may decrease as UTD cuts its housing stipend for new Academic Excellence Scholar- ship, or AES, recipients.
The stipend was cut to reduce de- mand for on-campus housing, said UTD Provost Hobson Wildenthal.
“We expanded the offers of housing subsidies for the fall 2011 class to ensure full occupancy of the expanded capacity for freshman (residence halls),” he said. “However … fall 2011 showed that there was excess demand for housing, such that not all applicants could be satisfied.”
The AES is UTD’s most awarded undergraduate scholarship, which covers up to the entire tuition and fees of incoming students for eight semesters.
For several years, some AES recipients have received a housing stipend in addition to their tuition award. The dollar amount of housing stipends has varied over the years and current freshmen will receive $3,000 per year until they graduate.
Several students with an AES scholarship say they are able to afford living at UTD only because of their stipend.
Nabila Alam, biology sophomore, said she loves being able to live on campus as it allows her to be involved with clubs and friends. But without her $3,000 per year stipend, she would have lived with her parents – 40 minutes away from UTD.
“I see paying for gas a much smaller cost than an apartment,” she said. “If I didn’t have my stipend I don’t think I would live on campus.”
Students that did not receive a housing stipend like Alam say it is difficult to afford paying for on-campus housing. June Nganga, a bio sophomore and Alam’s roommate in University Village, said she lives at UTD to get involved with on-campus life and to reduce her transportation bills.
But living on campus, she said, comes with several costs. Since most of her parent’s income goes to support her extended family back in Kenya, Nganga had to take out several loans to afford both her education and housing at UTD. “I received no financial aid, just loans,” she said. “I’m scared of ending up with (a lot of debt) when I graduate.”
Because students like Alam say they decided to come to UTD because of its scholarship offers, some high school seniors say that the decision to cut the housing stipend may act as a disincentive for them to enroll at UTD.
One such student is Andrew Nguyen, a high school senior from Austin, who applied to UTD because of the university’s good scholarship opportunities and its highly ranked criminology and business programs.
Nguyen also applied to the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Florida and the University of Houston. He said he has not yet received any scholarship offers and is waiting to see which school has the best academic programs and tuition package.
“I’m not sure (where I’m going to go) now,” he said. “I’ll just see how they line up financially; I don’t want to be in debt forever.”
While Nguyen said the decision to cut the stipends may deter him from coming to UTD, Wildenthal said that compared to other universities, UTD is competitive in its cost and quality of education.
“My informal conversations with prospective students (and their parents) at various events and meetings has lead me to believe that the change in scholarship level will not deter students from applying and ultimately enrolling,” he said.
In addition to cutting the AES housing stipend, UTD is working to de- crease excess demand for on-campus housing by building additional housing facilities, Wildenthal said. One such facility will be a new freshmen residence hall, scheduled for occupancy by fall 2012.
“We think it is a good thing for students, particularly freshmen, to live on campus,” he said. “However, building takes time and financial resources, and new housing does not appear overnight.
