UTRGV’s new housing policy requires first- and second-year students to live on campus–if they do not meet exemption requirements.
Sergio Martinez, director of Residence Life, explained the exemptions to the housing policy. Martinez said the first exemption is for students whose primary residence is in the Rio Grande Valley, including Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr and Willacy counties.
“[The policy] is for students who live outside of those counties,” Martinez said. “If you live in any one of those counties I mentioned, this policy does not apply to you.”
Students who are married, have dependent children, are 20 years or older or have completed over 30 semester credit hours as a freshman or 60 as a sophomore are exempt as well. Part-time students are also exempt.
Other exemptions and the Housing Policy Exemption Request Form can be found at https://www.utrgv.edu/housing/en-us/future-residents/first-and-second-year-housing-policy/index.htm.
Martinez said the new policy had been postponed.
“Since UTRGV was so new, we decided to postpone the implementation for a few years,” Martinez said.
Legacy institution University of Texas Pan American had a housing policy similar to UTRGV’s new one. Martinez explained UTPA had a radius policy. The new policy was made with UTRGV’s multiple locations in consideration. Martinez said the focus is on counties instead of miles since it would be challenging to measure 60 miles from each campus.
“We felt that it would be an easier way to get the message of what the requirement would be,” he said.
Martinez said the goal was to provide the best experience possible for students who need to live on campus.
“Most of the students that are going to be impacted from this policy are living on campus already,” Martinez said. “Working with enrollment management, we estimated that this policy was going to impact about 60 students … that did not have plans to live on campus already.”
During the Fall 2017 semester, 862 students lived on campus. This semester, 890 students are expected to live on campus.
Ruben Santibanez, assistant director of Residence Life, said the new policy will help first- and second-year students be more successful.
“The goal of it is making sure that they graduate on time, within the four years … making sure that [students] have an environment that is not only to sleep,” Santibanez said. “At the department, we try to make sure that we do things that are conducive to their learning environment.”
He also said resident assistants can help guide students during their freshman and sophomore years.
“A lot of students come in, straight from high school, not knowing how college works,” Santibanez said. “They get culture shocked on how different college is.”
He hopes on-campus residences will be an additional guiding factor for students.
Housing has been updated since the Spring 2018 semester. In Unity Hall on the Edinburg campus, carpeting has been removed and replaced with vinyl tile. Unity Hall and Casa Bella Apartments on the Brownsville campus have new furniture in common spaces and study rooms.
“We also purchased some additional mattresses,” Martinez said. “So, we will be replacing and phasing out a series of mattresses in all of our buildings: Unity, The Village Apartments, Casa Bella and Heritage.”
Casa Bella and Unity Hall offer free tutoring to students who live at the dorms for classes. Tutoring for each specific course available will be posted at the dorms. Unity and Heritage Hall also provide bathroom cleanings every four weeks.
Monica Vera, a marketing senior and lead resident assistant, explained some of the benefits of living on campus.
“If you do live on campus, your room is right there,” Vera said. “So, you can go back and forth to class. You can take time and go to your room and lounge around or get some work done. At the same time, if there’s an event on campus, it’s very easy to go to that event in the evening.”
Vera also said it is easier to become involved with the university.
Housing is still available in Unity Hall and Casa Bella; however, the Village Apartments and Heritage Hall are full.
“If we have spaces, we’ll gladly assign it to a student,” Santibanez said. “We probably do have a few spaces, but it may not be the ones [students] want.”
UTRGV can house about 1,300 students and is currently housing 900 students. Additionally, the IT department has offices in Casa Bella. Santibanez said the department uses around two floors and will likely remain at Casa Bella for about a year.
“We had some occupancy available, and there was an opportunity to work with IT to house them temporarily,” he said.
Housing has increased about 1 percent since Fall 2017 for the new academic school year. Santibanez explained the increase covers cost of inflation and other areas such as utilities.
“For example, in Heritage Hall, they saw a $20 increase,” he said.
For this academic year, a Double room, where a student has a roommate, in Heritage Hall costs $1,850 per semester. A Double in Unity Hall costs $2,100 and $1,920 in Casa Bella.
Freshmen Move-In Day took place last Thursday in Edinburg and last Friday in Brownsville. Returners moved in last Saturday.
For more information about housing, visit UTRGV’s website at https://www.utrgv.edu/housing/en-us/index.htm or call the Residential Life office at 665-3439 in Edinburg or 882-7191 in Brownsville.
