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Iowa State University

Solving the Housing Crisis at ISU

How are students choosing to live where they do?

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction and Problem Definition.....3

Executive Summary.......3

Introduction........3

Research Method and Findings .........4

Research Method....4

Statistical Method .........6

Description.........7

Sampling Method ......8

Conclusion ........8

Limitations ....8

Recommendations..........9
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I. INTRODUCTION AND PROBLEM DEFINITION

A. Executive Summary

This report was written to provide an evaluation and analysis of the current housing crisis

at Iowa State University, and why students choose to live where they do. The methods of

analysis include primary and secondary research. Primary research involves a survey

conducted amongst Iowa State University students and two interviews. 33


! ! Secondary

research is comprised of information gathered regarding the current housing options. The

survey details general demographic and psychographic information pertaining to housing

preference, and geographic information on the subject of current and past living

locations. It is seen that most students have lived or do live on-campus, most prefer

apartment-style housing, and most think Iowa State University should provide more on-

campus apartments and condominiums. Suggestions from respondents regarding how

Iowa State University can improve the current housing situation were also gathered.

Based on the findings, recommendations include updating current housing, beginning the

planning phase to increase the number of on-campus apartment-style housing options,

and expanding the Cyride services. While all this research was discovered, limitations

apply. It cannot be guaranteed that all respondents were Iowa State University students.

Furthermore, a majority of respondents were female.

B. Introduction

The enrollment rate at Iowa State University continues to rise exponentially. In the

2015-2016 school year, the school reached a record enrollment of 36,000 students; one-

year later, enrollment has already reached 37,000. As the total number of students
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continues to rise, the university is running out of living space to accommodate students,

on- and off-campus. According to the Iowa State University Department of Residence

website, 95 percent of freshman live on-campus, and 50 percent return the following year.

In any given semester, approximately 12,000 students live on-campus (Iowa State

University DOR). Our team was curious to see why students chose to live where they do,

and what the main factors were in their decisions. Through our research, we came to the

conclusion that Iowa State University must update their current housing, and increase the

amount of on-campus apartment-style housing options.

To help you better understand these recommendations, this report will begin by detailing

our research methods and the findings. Next we will explain our conclusions based on

our findings, as well as the limitations to our research. Finally, we will go into more

depth regarding our recommendations. Through research and analysis, this report will

show why it is imperative that Iowa State University takes the further steps to solve the

current housing crisis.

II. RESEARCH METHOD AND FINDINGS

A. Research Methods

To answer our research question regarding the current housing crisis at Iowa State

University and the ways students make choices regarding their housing, our team decided

to conduct a survey, as well as a number of interviews.

We chose to conduct our survey using Google Forms. Each member of our team sent the

survey to a male and female from each student classification status (Freshman,

Sophomore, Junior, and Senior). Through this method, we set a goal of 60 responses. As
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we received feedback from participants, we found that many were choosing not to

respond. To fix this, we decided to open our survey to more students. We each sent our

survey to numerous people via email and social media. Some of us chose to send our

survey to a greek organization, students with whom we shared classes, people in our

majors, acquaintances, and others. We asked people to forward the survey to as many

students as they could. By opening our survey to more students, we had a much larger

response rate, and more data to analyze. In the end, we collected exactly 100 responses.

We conducted interviews of one female and one male respondent. Both are seniors at

Iowa State University. We asked them why they have chosen to live where they do

throughout their years at Iowa State University. The male respondent, a 5th-year-senior

studying electrical engineering has lived in his fraternity house since his first semester at

Iowa State University. He said that he chose this location for the opportunity to live with

his brothers for five years, and for the convenience of having a chef prepare all their

meals. He went on to say that he had the rest of his life to live in a house or apartment

so he wanted to take to opportunity to do something different now. The female

respondent is a graduating senior studying political science and lives in Frederiksen Court

- one of the on-campus apartments. She said that she chose to live in an on-campus

apartment because it is convenient, cheaper than other options, and maintained by the

school. Also all utilities are included in the sticker price. Another convenient thing is

that you dont have to find someone to sublease from you when you graduate. She has

previously lived in her sorority chapter house, as well as an off-campus apartment. She
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shared that living in an on-campus apartment has been her favorite place to live so far, for

the reasons mentioned.

B. Statistical Method

Our following graphs represent some of the collected data:

From the results, we can concur that most students would like to see more on-campus

housing. 64.6 percent of the people would prefer to see more updated apartments built,

and 16.2 percent of people would like to see more townhouse-style housing built. Over

half of the people that took this survey have lived in on-campus housing, so most are

familiar with the kinds of on-campus housing is currently available. In other questions,

we asked what more they would like to see from the Iowa State University Department of

Residence. Respondents answered that they would like more updated housing, and/or for

current dorms to be remodeled.

Separating responses by gender, there is a clear difference in the numbers. Less female

respondents live on-campus housing now, and their main three reasons for choosing to

live where they do include: social reasons (66%), convenience (57%), and
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price (41%) with experience (at 35%) not trailing far behind. Looking at the answers

provided by male respondents, most live off-campus currently, but have lived on-campus

previously. However, a larger percentage of male respondents live on-campus now

compared to female respondents. Similar to the female respondents, the three main

reasons for choosing to live where they do include: convenience (71%), price (67%),

and social reasons (57%). While the three main reasons are the same for both male and

female respondents, the order of importance differs.

C. Description

When conducting our research we choose to use qualitative and quantitative methods. We

felt that this would be the best choice because it would give the most insight into the the

housing problem at Iowa State University. We hoped that the survey would uncover

trends, including what motivates students when making their choice in housing. Based

on our intended audience, we concluded that the best way to achieve this was through a

self-administered survey. We sent out the survey online via Google forms, and left it open

to respondents for seven days. This survey included both multiple-choice questions (10

questions), as well as open-answer questions (four questions) - 14 questions total. We

chose this method to gather our research regarding campus housing in light of the fact

that our respondents could do it on their own time and pace, which fits our intended

audience: college students with unpredictable and often hectic schedules. We emailed our

respondents the survey and shared it via social media on Facebook. In our emails and

posts, we informed respondents to what the survey pertained, its purpose and the deadline
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for completion. With also did two interviews, this method gave us the chance to converse

directly with individuals and get more in-depth answers.

D. Sampling Method

Our population of interest consisted of students who have lived on- and off-campus

throughout their years at Iowa State University. We wanted to determine why and how

they made their decisions, and if they were satisfied with their housing choices. Our

sample was made up of students who are friends, acquaintances and classmates, which

resulted in a sample size of 100 students. We altered our sampling method because

initially many students did not reply to our survey when each of us sent it to only two

students per classification. We did not feel that the initial sample was a good

representation of our population. To create a larger sample size, we opened up our survey

to more students. After receiving more responses we feel that we have a better

representation.

III. CONCLUSION

While performing our research, we aimed to uncover where the majority of the students at

Iowa State University chose to live, and why they chose to live either on-campus or off-

campus. We sent out a survey to students here at Iowa State and gathered 100 responses. We

found that most students have lived on-campus for at least one-year while in college.

Through our research, we have established recommendations that we believe Iowa State

University could use to resolve the housing crisis in Ames.

A. Limitations

One of our main limitations in our research was that we could not find as many males
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that were willing to participate in our survey. Every group member sent it to a handful of

males, but only twenty-one respondents were male, and two chose not to identify their

gender. Another limitation was that we cannot guarantee that only Iowa State University

students responded to the survey. Although all of our group members sent the survey to

Iowa State University students, they could have had friends take it that do not attend our

school, and by posting the survey on social media other friends and acquaintances who

do not attend Iowa State University could have participated.

To avoid not having all Iowa State University students, we could pass out the survey on

paper while on-campus and have those students fill it out and immediately give it back

upon completion. To prove they are Iowa State students we would need to see their Iowa

State ID. This would also help with our limitations by getting more males to fill out our

survey.

We hypothesize that if more men had responded, our data would have differed in that a

smaller percentage of respondents would have previously or currently lived on campus.

Furthermore, price and convenience would have been larger factors in where respondents

chose to live.

B. Recommendations

Based on our finding, we found that most Iowa State University students want more on-

campus apartments, similar to Frederiksen Court that are more modernized and come

with a lower price tag. They also do not want a required meal plan, and want the option

to use a full-service kitchen to cook their own meals. Lastly, people are wanting buses

that run more frequently to off-campus locations such as west Ames. Another
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recommendation is for Iowa State University to better advertise the the University West

apartments to students and provide more regular and frequent bussing options to residents

of that community.
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IV. REFERENCES

1. "Welcome to the On-Campus Experience!" Welcome to the On-Campus Experience! |

Department of Residence - Housing. Iowa State University, n.d. Web. 05 Dec. 2016.

V. APPENDICES

2. Pie chart referencing survey, asking what kind of housing style respondents preferred.

3. Pie chart referencing survey, asking if respondents thought Iowa State University should

provide more on-campus apartment/condominium style housing.

4. Pie chart referencing survey, asking respondents where they had lived on campus during

their time at Iowa State University.

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