Auburn on-campus housing looks to expand but still offer freshman a chance to live off-campus

AUBURN, Ala. – When students move hours away to college, one of parents’ biggest concerns is where their children are going to live.

Auburn University Director of University Housing and Residence Life Kevin Hoult says the emails don’t stop all summer long as parents try to get their children into one of Auburn’s 32 residence halls.

Auburn is one of the few schools in the SEC that does not require freshmen to spend a year on campus. University of Kentucky, Texas A&M and University of Florida are the few others that don’t have a live-on requirement.

Despite the trend to have students experience a year on campus, Hoult says the university isn’t looking to join the ten other SEC schools with live-on requirements.

“It is something unique to our campus, where our students can have a choice where they reside, and we think that it’s special for our students,” Hoult said.

While freshman currently have to enter a lottery system for housing, Hoult says the university houses 65 to 70 percent of freshman. Auburn’s most recent freshman class had 6,223 students. Select sorority members, student athletes, and upperclassmen are also housed on campus.

Living on campus is often seen as a stepping stone from living at home with parents to students being completely on their own in apartments. On-campus residence halls have amenities like resident assistants, nearby dining halls and easy access to classes.

Still, residence halls on campus are significantly more expensive than off campus apartments. Auburn’s residence halls range from $6,120 to $11,810 per year for a double room. And inconveniences like not having a kitchen and not having easy access to a vehicle made some Auburn freshmen choose to live off campus.

“I chose to live off campus because my older sister was already living off campus so it just made a lot of sense for our family but actually I ended up liking it better because I have like my own kitchen, my own laundry and just stuff like that makes it really convenient,” said freshman Ashley Turner.

Freshman Faith Osborn said she wanted to live on campus for the community and the convenience. “Just that everything’s really close, especially food. So that when I’m hungry, I don’t have to drive anywhere and get something, it’s really close. And I can wake up late for my classes and still be on time,” she said.

Hoult said that the new Housing Master Plan is looking to build residence halls to replace the beds that are in the Hill and Cambridge residence halls. The location of those new buildings is undecided, but construction could start in the next two to five years.