Boston University justifies its inflated housing costs by pointing to rising property taxes and stagnant property values across the city.
BU, one of few schools in Boston that guarantees students on-campus housing for four years, charges at least $7,100 for a full year of housing without a meal plan.
The costs typically reflect the property values in the area, said BU spokesman Colin Riley, adding BU’s housing rates must reflect Boston’s high cost of living.
“[Residence] pricing is determined by the cost of the system,” he said. “We’re trying to provide housing in such a way that it’s compatible with our inventory. And we’re expanding our inventory.”
Riley said the fees for specialized housing reflect the cost of construction and maintenance and added that rates are often similar for seemingly different living set-ups – like doubles and quads – due to nearly impossible calculations required to assess and price every variable for each room in each dorm.
“It’s not efficient to price all the different units,” he said. “There would be a different price for every unit. That’s not reasonable.”
Both Riley and Housing Director Marc Robillard said because of the large student population and restricted space, BU’s housing system is somewhat flawed.
“The system works well,” Robillard said. “There’s just not enough room.”
Robillard said his department is “focusing on the big developments,” like Student Village 2, to increase revenue, rather than small apartment-style housing, because large residences provide the most efficient and cost-effective means to increase residential capacity.
According to Robillard, 70 percent of BU’s on-campus population lives in 11 large-capacity structures – including Warren Towers and the West Campus Complex – while the other 30 percent live in the roughly 139 other buildings.
BU remodeled the third and fourth floors of the east tower of Towers this past fall and plans to systematically remodel all 4,000 rooms in Warren, Towers and West Campus, which have not been renovated since their construction in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
“Our priorities right now are to build new residences, remodel brownstones and do the extreme makeover on Towers, [West] and Warren,” he said.
According to Robillard, 77 percent of BU’s 15,000 undergraduate students live on campus, with 75 percent of each class returning to housing the following year. However, he said only about 25 percent of upperclassmen receive the housing of their choice.
Boston College offers four years of housing to only half its students, BC Housing Director Henry Humphreys said. The university’s Admissions Office decides which students receive guaranteed housing based on academic performance, while students left out of residences are responsible for their own housing after their sophomore year, he said.
Similar to BU’s formula, housing rates at BC are based on property debt, maintenance, utilities and department costs, Humphreys said.
Other area schools like Suffolk University and Northeastern University also struggle to provide affordable housing to students: Both charge more than $10,000 a year in housing and neither guarantees four years of on-campus digs.