By Ana Ruiz Brictson | Staff Writer
After the pandemic, there has been a decrease in the number of students who have enrolled in in-person summer classes.
According to Ian Philbrick, associate director for housing administration, this year’s selected housing for students staying on campus over the summer will be in the University Parks apartment complex.
“They are apartment-style, which just means you have a private kitchen in the space, and you can choose to have your own private bathroom or you can have a bathroom that you share with your roommate, and you have your own bedroom,” Philbrick said. “So it’s pretty independent living, which is what we go for in the summer because the dining is very limited.”
Philbrick said one of the requirements to be eligible to live on campus over the summer is to be enrolled in at least one summer class.
Additionally, Philbrick said there are several benefits to living in the University Parks apartment complex, including access to amenities like a pool, volleyball court, basketball court and personal independent space.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of people who have signed up to take in-person summer classes at Baylor has decreased drastically due to the option of taking them online.
According to Philbrick, a rough estimate of the number of students who have enrolled in in-person summer classes is around 60 to 100 students. The University Parks apartment complex can hold up to 540 students.
“During the year, there are about 5,000 people that live on campus, so could you imagine going from 5,000 to 100?” Philbrick said. “That’s a pretty big drop.”
Freshmen who are currently living on campus and plan to take an in-person minimester course beginning May 16 will also have to move to University Parks right after graduation.
“The people who really score are the people who are already living in University Parks, because they can stay, but if you’re in a different residence hall, you do have to move over there,” Philbrick said.
Philbrick said there is only one residence hall open for students to live in over the summers because of the lack of staff and the opportunity for buildings to get repairs done. Philbrick said each summer, a different residence hall is selected for students to live in while they take their in-person classes.
Students who will be living in the University Parks apartments this summer can count on having a community leader, a chaplain and a hall director.
“They have the regular support staff that you would during the school year too,” Philbrick said.
Sachse sophomore Grant Hayes has been living in the University Parks apartment complex since fall 2021. He said it is a great choice for students to be living there during the summer.
“It definitely helps to not have to pay as much for a meal plan,” Hayes said. “And the room I am in right now is a four-person apartment, so two people share one bathroom.”
Philbrick said the prices for on-campus summer housing will depend on which term students attend.
Students taking the in-person minimester course will be paying $510 to stay in the apartment complex for that time, whereas students who will be attending the summer one or summer two terms will be paying $1,020.
Philbrick said that if a student were doing a special research study for two weeks over the summer, the team would prorate the cost so that they could pay for half the amount of the $1,020 term.
“Because it’s so small, we have the ability to tailor things pretty well and be pretty flexible,” Philbrick said.
The biggest change, according to Philbrick, is the number of people enrolling in in-person summer classes after COVID-19.
“We just want students to know that if [they] want to stay, we do have this option,” Philbrick said.
