CU DENVER WANTS ON-CAMPUS DORM

Leaders at the University of Colorado Denver, long known as a commuter school, want to build a dormitory on the Auraria Campus to house more than 500 students.

Leaders at the University of Colorado Denver, long known as a commuter school alongside its two neighboring academic institutions, want to build a dorm on the downtown Auraria Campus that could house more than 500 of CU’s students.

The residence hall — which is being pitched as a way to help increase enrollment of international, out-of-state, full-time and undergraduate students — would mark the first time the urban college hub would provide an oncampus home for its learners.

“We still have a number of commuting students, but over time we have gotten more students who are full time coming from outside of Denver,” said Cary Weatherford, director of CU Denver’s institutional planning. “The housing market in Denver has gotten very expensive, and our students who try to live near the campus are being pushed farther and farther out.”

The only housing currently affiliated with the 150-acre Auraria Campus — where a combined 38,000 students attend CU Denver, Metropolitan State University of Denver and the Community College of Denver — is the Campus Village apartment complex and dining hall located off campus near Broncos Stadium at Mile High.

The $68 million proposal to build an on-campus dorm is scheduled to be voted on by the CU Board of Regents during its meeting on the university’s Boulder campus Thursday.

Weatherford stressed CU Denver, which enrolled 19,558 students last fall, is not trying to become a “traditional residential university” like its larger counterpart in Boulder.

“It’s more about providing an option for our students who want that,” Weatherford said.

The proposed dorm would stand six to seven stories tall and be built on an existing recreation field adjacent to the Auraria Campus’ Rob and Lola Salazar Student Wellness Center. Plans call for

550 beds, a dining hall open to all CU Denver students and a “learning commons” with student support and tutoring services.

CU Denver students interested in living on campus would see a proposed price tag between $3,600 and $5,300 per semester, per student. The difference in price would depend on whether students lived alone or with one or two roommates. No meal plans are included in those prices.

“We feel this is very competitive in the Denver market — and all are furnished — so that it would really qualify as affordable housing,” Weatherford said.

A standard dorm room for two students at CU Boulder for the 2019-20 school year, which includes 19 meals per week, is projected at $7,389 per person, per semester.

“A really powerful retention tool”

If the CU Denver housing project gets the OK on Thursday, Weatherford said the university expects to start welcoming students into the new dorm beginning in the fall of 2021.

Weatherford said surveys show on-campus housing improves student retention, student performance and graduation rates.

Twenty-three percent of first-time freshmen at CU Denver in 2011 graduated in four years, 39 percent got their degree in five years and 45 percent nabbed their diploma by year six.

“Student retention is really something we’re trying to work on and getting our students graduating at a good rate,” Weatherford said. “When you can immerse students on campus close to services and opportunities and they feel like part of a community — that’s a really powerful retention tool.”

CU Denver and the University of Colorado Real Estate Foundation previously mandated that all incoming freshmen and first-time international students who lived more than 50 miles away live in the off-campus Campus Village apartments, but that requirement no longer exists.

The 722-bed Campus Village — rents range from $3,300 per person, per semester, to $6,150 depending on the number of roommates — primarily houses CU Denver students. A handful of Metro State and CCD students who have been grandfathered in from when the apartments served all three campuses call Campus Village home, said Kade Ross, CU Denver director of housing and dining.

Daylee Randall, a 21-yearold CU Denver student, felt like Campus Village housing was key in enhancing her college experience — so much so that Randall now works as a residential adviser in the dorms helping out first-year students.

“I really enjoyed the constant programming we had at Campus Village my freshman year, like canvasses and mocktails where we all sat and painted and talked,” Randall said. “I got to know a lot of people, built a lot of friendships and created that home-base environment. Now I try to do that as an RA.

“I think adding more campus housing is really important, especially for students who want to stay on campus and have that traditional lifestyle.”

Metro State and the Community College of Denver don’t have housing plans in the works.

Challenge to find nearby housing

Cassandra Porter, a 20year-old student at Metro State, said she wishes there were options for her to live on campus.

Porter, who lives with her family in Arvada, explored the idea of moving to a place of her own earlier in the year after growing frustrated sharing a car with her brother, who needed to be in Golden while she commuted to downtown Denver for school.

But Denver’s housing market put the brakes on her plan. Denver is the most expensive city in the metro area in which to rent an apartment, with median rent reaching $1,540 per month, according to a new report by rental company Zumper.

“I wish there were more housing opportunities for everyone,” Porter said. “What’s the difference between a CU Denver, CCD and Metro student? It’s all the same campus. I’m very lucky that I’m not in a desperate situation to find a place to stay, but I know people who are, and it’s quite a challenge.”

Metro State spokesman Timothy Carroll said the university started a task force last year to identify potential new housing resources for students.

“We are beginning to further explore housing partnerships and development opportunities, and will be analyzing what makes sense for the MSU Denver of the future,” Carroll said.

Christa Saracco, spokeswoman for CCD, said that because of the nature of the community college’s population — 71 percent of attendees during the 201718 school year were parttime students — it doesn’t offer campus housing. A CCD web page offers resources for students looking for places to live in the area.

Weatherford noted that the new CU Denver dorm, if approved, would not only be a benefit to students, but to the city as well.

“These students are obviously living somewhere currently, and this housing will help the city of Denver close the gap in affordable housing with this project,” Weatherford said.