The U Must House Us
Bryce Riesner
One of the biggest contributing factors to the rising cost of college is housing. I am currently paying $800 a month to stay at the WaHu apartments and I would say I am one of the lucky ones, as the University of Minnesota’s estimated cost of rent is nearing $1,250 per student as of 2024. This is made all the more astonishing by the fact that this cost is larger for people living on campus. What this is leading to is UMN’s indirect gentrification of the surrounding neighborhoods as students cannot afford to live on campus, forcing them to compete in the surrounding housing market. Ultimately, this change in the neighborhood’s economic reality results in the loss of local businesses and residents being forced out of the place they called home that they can no longer afford.
The University of Minnesota is an active contributor to this process by not increasing the housing supply on its campuses. This is demonstrably true as the U requires in-person labs to be completed in order to graduate, and every major has two mandated science classes.
The U is also a player in the gentrification process because it buys off land from the surrounding area which will not be made into housing, further pushing developers into the local community. A domino effect occurs where the price of property taxes goes up, thus displacing neighbors, which opens up land for new development, then further displaces people.
This article is not all doom and gloom, however. I’m writing this because the U can absolutely make the lives of all of its students and the surrounding, increasingly burdened communities better. The U renovates every year—look to Fraser Hall till next fall if you want a current example—and with its acquisitions, it continues to build outward. Cessation of this would result in the U having ample opportunities to stop gentrifying the surrounding community.
What the U needs to do is push for mixed-use housing developments in their construction efforts, something which is currently non-existent in their current UMTC Campus Plan. A style of approach I recommend for the U is following in the footsteps of Augsburg University, just across the street. The Oren Gateway Center has offices, classrooms, and apartments, which all contribute to campus life. Simply put, the University of Minnesota should throw apartment buildings on top of buildings they are renovating instead of building from scratch. By lacking any attempt to expand on campus housing, UMN will continue its cycle of raising the cost of living for students and the surrounding neighborhoods.
Another avenue of approach would be to convert offices into dormitories. With working from home becoming an increasing reality after COVID-19, the U has put in a lot of effort to get their work flow around telecommuting which has left most offices bare, thus giving the U an amazing opportunity to convert this abandoned space into new life blood for students–-especially since Minneapolis is making it easier than ever to convert offices into dormitory style residences.
After reading all of this, you may be wondering why I myself am not offering any movement to get these policies amended into the U.
I’m sorry to say, but it’s because I’m exhausted. In my first semester at the UMN, I read an article about how the University pays contracted carpenters and sanitation workers twelve cents an hour and for the last four semesters of my college career, I have fought to rewrite that contract. I wanted the U to condemn slavery in the state of Minnesota and pay fair wages to its contractors. While it has broken off it’s contract, no effort has been made by UMN to help those who are suffering in prison today. (But here is a link to people who are making a difference: endslaverymn.org)
But just as I happened to read an article in my first semester at the U that would burn inside me until something changed, I now write this article hoping that it will light a fire in someone else. Maybe someone attending the U will become a member of the Undergraduate Student Government’s Student Life and Well Being Committee to forward a resolution. Maybe someone employed by the U will start initiatives to promote well being from your department. Maybe someone is a professor who will advocate for lower rent and get their college to demand more housing from administration.