Absence of Housing Around Texas Wesleyan University - Research Proposal Example

Lecturer: Topic: No Housing Around Texas Wesleyan Introduction Texas Wesleyan is a privately owned, coeducational institution that deals with liberal arts which was founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1890 whose main campus is in Polytechnic Heights Area of Fort Worth, in Texas (Cook and Dandridge 57). The university is located in a 75-acre campus and sits about one hundred and forty feet above the Trinity River, which puts it among the highest points that have been identified in the city of Fort Worth. Freese and Nichols Incorporated, which is a firm that specializes in architecture as well as engineering, was employed by the university in 2011 to come up with a master plan for its campus. The company that was employed also works with the major street improvements that take place around the area where the university is situated. The admissions that usually take place at the university are considered to be selective and the undergraduate enrollment is 1,794 while the graduate enrollment is 1,410 students. Fifty eight percent of the student population is female and there are 1,233 students who are enrolled in the full time programs while 561 are enrolled in the part time with 44 percent of the student body being identified as minority. Only 412 students reside inside the campus out of the total population of the school due to lack of adequate boarding and accommodation facilities in the university and most of the students that are enrolled in this university are from Texas. Out of the total population of the students that are enrolled by the university, only 412 students live inside the university and the rest of the students have to find alternative places to live outside the campus. There are houses that offer this alternative residential living for the students but these houses are expensive for the students and cannot house many of the students. There are no apartment buildings that can adequately cater for the accommodation needs of many of the students at the same time. As a result of the lack in adequate housing for the university students at the Texas Wesleyan University, the prices that the students who do not get accommodation inside the university have to pay at the alternative housing around the university are very high. The limited housing that exists around the university does not offer competitive rates that are in the range that the university charges those students living within the campus. This makes the students seek alternative housing in areas that are further from the campus so that they can be able to have relatively lower rates. Unfortunately, the search for lower rates increases the expenditure that the students have to incur everyday in terms of transportation costs to and from the university as they go to class in the morning and go back to where they live in the evening. This also means that the students will not be able to have an elaborate meal plan since they are not in a position to go back to their places of residence over the short time they might get for lunch. Problem Most of the post-secondary institutions have their own residential campuses (Carchidi 7) and come up with policies that strictly specify which students are supposed to live in the housing that is in the campus. These regulations may apply to a particular section of the students and they employ classifications that are based on the age, class, sex as well as the marital status of the students. Normally, the institutions also have policies that control the living conditions in the housing that is in the campuses (Kaplin and Lee 374). At the Texas Wesleyan University, the accommodation that is available inside the campus is not enough to cater for the whole student population that is enrolled to the university. As a result, only particular students get the chance to live inside the campus and the rest have to find alternative residence in the area surrounding the university. The campus accommodation is limited and as a result is reserved for students who meet certain criteria such as being full time students since the university does not develop housing that is meant for the low-income students as a special group (Pan and Jaworowski 60). At the Texas Wesleyan University, the students have to pay a non-refundable application fee of USD25 when they are applying for housing at the university and well as a USD200 refundable deposit for the same. The university does not reserve any housing for any particular student until they have been able to pay the application fee, the deposit, have been able to submit a meningitis record and have also signed and delivered a contract at the universities offices. The spaces that are available inside the university are on a first come first served basis and the university also sends paper contracts to the students who are not able to access the contracts that are on the universities website. There is also short term accommodation that is provided by the university is usually limited which is meant for the distance-learning students who are required to be at the main campus for a short period of time between two weeks to two months. For this accommodation, the students are required to pay the same amount in application fees as well as housing deposit as the students who study in the university. Although the university aims at providing accommodation to most of its students at the campus and making sure that all the students that are accommodated at the campus are comfortable and the environment that the housing provides is convenient and offers opportunities for an increased campus involvement, the housing is not adequate. The housing in the campus wishes to increase social interaction for the students as well as academic assistance but cannot be able to cater for the needs of all the students. From interviews conducted in the university with several students that did not have accommodation at the campus as respondents, it was clear that the students preferred the building of an apartment complex around the university that would be able to house them. This would go a long way in making them comfortable in the school environment and increasing the level of convenience they have as far as housing is concerned. Stephen Gambill, who is a student at the Texas Wesleyan University and could not be able to secure housing in the university campus was asked whether he thought it would be cheaper to reside in the apartment buildings that were supposed to be developed. “I think the apartment buildings being developed will significantly lower the rates that are associated with housing for the students around the university since the limited housing that is available at the moment gives the owners of the alternative housing outside the university some form of monopoly (Gambill). Solution The solution to this problem will be to come up with alternative housing outside the university that will be able to cater for the needs of accommodation for the students who will not have secured accommodation in the university campus. The best kind of alternative housing that will be serve the total and complete needs of the students will need to replicate the hostels that are provided by the university campus inside the university. This is should be done to make sure that the students who will live in the housing that will be provided will be as comfortable as the ones that will live in the hostels that are provided by the university. The atmosphere and environment at this alternative housing building should also be one that is comfortable and conducive enough for the students to live in and one that motivates them academically. The alternative housing that is proposed is an apartment building that will be outside the university but not far away from the campus to make sure that the students do not have to incur expenses that are associated with transport to and from the university. It should also be accessible to the university to ensure that the students can easily utilize the library services in the campus as well as socialize with other students. The alternative apartment blocks should also include an area where the students can get a quiet time to study and also a section that can cater for their entertainment needs as well as recreation. The apartment will also cater for the freedom of the students and they will also easily do their daily chores without any hindrance, which will in the end work towards increasing their scores in class. The apartment to be constructed will have to be in the Glenwood triangle, Morningside or the Mitchell Boulevard, which are the nearest neighborhoods to the Texas Wesleyan University meaning these will be the best sites for minimizing daily car use. All these neighborhoods have the same population densities that is characterized by two thousand people per square mile while Morningside is the largest making it the best area to find space to put up an apartment building. The apartment building will be a four-storey block that will have 310 study bedrooms that will be divided into groups of ten each with a communal space in the middle. The construction will be founded on the tunnel-form solution whose walls will be characterized by block-work masonry. There will not be facilities like bars in the apartment building and the table will consist of furniture, fixtures as well as equipment that will fitted in the study bedrooms as well as the common areas. Cost of the project The apartment building that will be built to cater for the students that do not get accommodation inside the university campus will have to be durable particularly the windows, finishes as well as furniture and the fixtures and equipment that will be installed. The rooms will be en-suite so that the issues that are associated with maintenance in the communal bathing facilities can be dealt with even though water damage is a problem that is always recurring. The kitchens as well as the bedrooms will have furniture that will be of an excellent quality even though the cost of furniture normally generates pressure on the overall costs. The apartments will also have to be built in such a way that they will be able to be easily maintained while causing the least amount of disruptions to the students that will be living there. Services that will be directed at the individual study bedrooms will be in a position to isolate the other elements that need to be cleaned and maintained on a regular basis that include the windows, and this will be specified to make it easier. The construction costs for the new building should average USD180 per square foot and this is slightly lower than the national median for a residence hall. With mid-range materials, the apartment building will include a normal foundation that will have a full basement, efficient doors as well as windows and all the appliances, the cost of a single unit will be between USD70,000 and USD 90,000 without including the cost of the land. The pricing structure makes the assumption that the carpenters, masons as well as the excavators will be paid a mean of USD75 per hour, while the electricians will be paid USD75 per hour. An architect will be employed to assess and make an evaluation of the scope of the project that will come up with the preliminary budget and at same time draft a list of proposed work, budget and outline of the plans to be used. a contractor will on the other hand avail the services and materials that are needed for the entire project while hiring subcontractors if the need arises. He will also suggest any adjustments that they need to make to the architect that will help them meet the goals of the owner. After the project is finished, the contractor will be tasked with the final clean up of the site and pull all the permits that will be needed for work as well as the installation of utilities. Conclusion The problem that exists in the Texas Wesleyan University that is associated with the housing and accommodation of the students that it has enrolled at the institution can be addressed through the building of a new apartment building. The new apartment building will cater for the population of students that have not been able to get accommodation and housing inside the university campus. It will also go a long way in expanding the student population of the university because the university will be in a better position to enroll more students since they will have comfortable and affordable accommodation near the campus. The university will not have to limit its enrollment to the housing facilities that it has. Interview questions What is the criterion that is used to choose the students who live in the university campuses? Do you prefer to live inside the university campus or outside? Do you consider the residence housing offered inside the university adequate? Do you consider the residence housing offered outside the university to be an adequate alternative? What is the difference in rates between the housing offered in the university campus and the one offered outside the university? Why are there no apartment buildings that have been developed in the areas around the university to be used as alternative housing? What would be the advantages of developing apartment buildings around the university? Do you think it would be cheaper to reside in the apartment buildings that should be erected? What implications would living as a student community in the developed apartment building have on the student in terms of their education? What implications would living as a student community in the developed apartment building have on the student in terms of their social development? Works cited Carchidi, Daniel. “Virtual Delivery And Virtual Organization Of Postsecondary Education”. 1st ed. London: RoutledgeFalmer, 2002. Print. Cook, Rita, and Russell Dandridge. “Haunted Fort Worth”. 1st ed. Charleston, SC: Haunted America, 2011. Print. Gambill, Stephen. “Personal interview.” 20 April 2014. Kaplin, William and Barbara Lee. “The Law Of Higher Education”. 1st ed. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2006. Print. Pan, Peter and Susan Ekimoto Jaworowski. “Non-Profit Housing Development”. 1st ed. Honolulu, Hawaii (State Capital, Honolulu 96813): The Bureau, 1993. Print. Peck Roxy, Olsen Chris and Devore Jay. ”Introduction to statistics and data analysis. Brooks/Cole, Boston: CENGAGE Learning. 2012.Print Read More