Photo by Andrew Rogers

Stacked walkways connect units at Jefferson 26, which spans two blocks on the corner of 26th Street and Nueces.

In a fast-paced environment of tight deadlines and heavy workloads, most college students benefit from a nearby residence that provides an easy evening run to campus for guest speakers or library use.  But when students have to cross the extra barrier of commuting to school, they often forgo convenient campus visits and lose out on academic gain. At the University of Texas, sharp rises in campus-area rents have forced many students to move farther away from campus and farther away from a college environment.

Developers of high-rise apartment complexes and condos in Austin did away with more than just small businesses and older buildings. They pushed out many UT students as well. The high West Campus area rents threaten to transform UT, founded in 1883, into more of a commuter campus. The once residential-style neighborhood, where fraternity and sorority houses used to be the most costly, now resembles an upscale, urban habitat which few can afford.

Austin's population doubles every 20 years, and the rapid growth tightens the real estate market and facilitates higher rents, said Elizabeth Mueller, the director of UT's Center for Sustainable Development. But increased housing competition does not fully explain the abrupt development of highrises in West Campus, Mueller said.

The core reason lies within a city initiative to urbanize the area. In 2004, the City Council hatched the University Neighborhood Overlay in response to more recent residents without university ties who complained about having college students for neighbors, Mueller said.  

Students have no representative on the Council. The development contract with the city changed the zoning codes, which previously mandated West Campus as a residential community and banned high-rise buildings.

"This contract led to the quick creation of apartments," Mueller said.  

Since the zoning overlay, which eliminated restrictions, developers brought a total of 19 new developments with more than 2,000 new units into West Campus, and 13 of those new complexes opened last August. These big buildings with big price tags drive up the neighborhood's property taxes.  Owners must charge more for rent to cover their increased taxes.

"The new buildings pose certain problems," said Brian Donovan, the general administrator for the Inter-Cooperative Council, which owns nine, non-profit, tax-exempt co-op houses around UT. These operate under the provision 501(c)(3) of the federal tax code. "Everybody's property tax goes up when you have these new buildings," Donovan said. "We are not affected by that, but ‘Joe property owners' are. They are getting killed by that."

The city's median home price of $194,700 went up 6.1 percent in 2008. "Multifamily property owners who cannot afford the rising property taxes are selling their properties or converting them to condominiums," said Rebecca Giello, a spokesperson for the City of Austin.

With a homeownership rate of 47 percent, most Austinites rely on the rental market, but the city's average incomes are rising slower than housing costs, Giello said. Almost 18 percent of Austin residents live in poverty compared to about 13% nationally. And as a college town, Austin has the highest fair-market rental price in Texas at $935 per month, making the cost of living a heavy burden on students Giello said.

UT's Office of Student Financial Aid Services estimates the cost of off-campus housing to be $4,750 for the 2008-2009 school year — $475 per month for a 10-month-long school year. Even doubling up barely covers a $935 rent. Federal Student Aid programs use these UT estimates to determine how much money one should receive from financial aid. If recipients stay close to their budget, they have far fewer options for housing. These economics generate a ripple effect. To meet realistic costs, students often add additional work hours, which eliminate time better spent on studying — especially since the legislature has insisted on faster graduation rates. Quality education gets squeezed out along with students.

West Campus looked more like a residential neighborhood two years ago when former UT student Olivia Radke moved into the 21st Street Co-op. Now, huge buildings covering several city blocks crowd in, and new construction continues.

"Surrounding neighborhoods don't like the flux of students in and out of their streets, so they recommend we be stacked on top of one another like caged animals," Radke said. "It's pretty distressing."

The construction of a 21-story highrise on the corner of 21st Street and Rio Grande represents one of several mammoth complexes springing up around town. To name a few, Block on Campus, Jefferson 26 and The Quarters all recently built apartments in the area. The most basic one-bedroom, 529-square-foot apartment in The Quarters complexes start out at $1,275 per month, and for a spot in the parking lot, tag on an extra $125 per month.  At The Quarters' Grayson complex, a 389-square-foot apartment costs $975 per month.

Photo by Andrew Rogers

Windows at Jefferson 26 give residents a view into the courtyard.

Radke said that pricey rent is just one of the many problems caused by the zoning overlay. The construction congests the community, minimizes street parking and causes early-morning noise disturbances. The campus area provides minimal free parking places, and even students with parking permits are not guaranteed a spot in the school lots. The inconveniences of construction take almost as much of a toll on people as higher rents, Radke said.

"Just in case your alarm doesn't go off, don't worry, the 6 a.m. construction crew will definitely wake you up," Radke said. "The whole thing is a mess. I think the high-rise apartments are draining any charm West Campus may have left."

Under the overlay agreement, contractors must either allocate 10% of their units to be priced at affordable rates or donate to a fund, which reserves money for the construction of affordable housing. But the "affordable rates" are often beyond the average student budget. Owners can charge a maximum of $1,000 for an "affordable" one-bedroom apartment under the standards set by the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department.

The Inter-Cooperative Council intends to benefit from the affordable housing fund, Donovan said. College Houses, another co-operative housing organization, already applied for close to a million dollars of funding for the construction of the new Super Co-op, a high-rise building with three co-ops stacked. Because student houses remain unaffected by the increase in property taxes, rents are cheaper. Student co-ops charge $462 for a single room while on-campus dormitories, which are also tax-exempt, charge $830 for a single room.

UT has not taken much initiative to provide affordable housing on campus. In fact, in August the university opened the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center — a new hotel where the student price for a room is $159 a night. Former Austin City Council candidate Colin Kalmbacher said that the city views highrises as a way to provide for growth while avoiding urban sprawl and the associated environmental consequences. However, UT should bear the burden of providing affordable student housing, Kalmbacher said.  

"The problem is that UT itself does not provide anywhere near the amount of [necessary] on-campus housing, and UT is notorious — and historically notorious — for not having anywhere near the amount of on-campus housing," Kalmbacher said. "They have all this really premier property. They are constantly trying to flex their muscles and use imminent domain rights to get more and more property. And what do they do with their latest plum pickings? They turn it into a gigantic, extravagant hotel. It's pretty simple why — because a hotel makes money and providing student housing doesn't."

Rooms in the residence halls are in constant demand and fill up in haste. And the university seeks now to do away with married student housing on the Brackenridge Tract. Regents argue that the university must maximize its investments. But others argue that students and the future of Texas is UT's first responsibility.

Two years ago, UT junior Charles Zhou lived on campus at the Castilian, but the next year, he quickly lost his room after he delayed renewing his lease. Another student took his spot, and the dorm ran out of rooms. Zhou now lives east of I-35, two miles from campus. Rents in East Austin gives students little financial elbowroom. After only one year, Zhou's rent jumped $100. He now pays $790 per month for a single room.

"I'm kind of annoyed by the fact that prices aren't dropping since there are a lot of new complexes being built, and I'm pretty far from campus," Zhou said.

To get to class, Zhou spends more than 30 minutes walking from his apartment in East Austin to campus.  When it rains, he often does not even go. Zhou prefers walking to riding the free UT shuttle because the walk usually takes less time than the shuttle, which sometimes takes more than half an hour to pick up other students and drive through heavy East Austin traffic. A walk from the Castilian residence hall to class takes only about five minutes.

"When I lived at the Castilian, I could wake up at 8:50 for a 9:00 class and not be late.  Now I have to get ready way earlier," Zhou said. "It's not that the walk is difficult, just time-consuming and extremely boring."

A 2007 study by the University of South Carolina showed 66% of on-campus residents surveyed felt that living on campus contributed to their overall academic experience, and 79% said that living on campus positively influenced their interaction with the university's faculty and staff and made it possible to participate in enrichment activities like special guest lectures or documentary screenings.

"I think the ability to live close to campus improves academic performance and decreases costs," Donovan said.  

Numerous national studies support the idea that students who live close to campus perform better in their classes than those who live farther away, Donovan said. Students who can quickly walk to school can embrace a college environment, easily return for guest speakers at night or make greater use of libraries and study groups. UT's housing division even lists better grades on a list of the top 10 reasons to live on campus, but ironically, the university doesn't provide enough on-campus housing to allow very many students to reap the benefits it cites.