Determing on/off campus resident numbers (STARS)
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This post is related to STARS, AASHE's Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System.
This post is related to the American College & University Presidents' Climate Commitment (ACUPCC).
For years our campus has been in need of a standarized and accurate way of determining how many students live on campus and how many are off-campus. On campus is easy to calculate with numbers from Housing. For off campus, though, we are really interested in getting data about where students live. This is useful for so many purposes: transportation planning, applying for grants, town and regional planning, GHG inventory, etc.,. So, the question I pose to others is how does your campus determine on and off-campus numbers?
The conclusion to a meeting we had yesterday with Campus Planning, Institutional Research, and our Sustainability Office was to seek to integrate a mandatory "zip code of school year residence" field in the student online course registration process. It may not be perfect, but it's a huge step from where we presently stand. Are there other ideas or methods that have worked for your campus?
Thanks for insights!
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Hello folks- usually the determination for on and off-campus housing has to do with a number of things that through the years have made it a bit more complex . In the past it has been the traditional residence hall that has been located on the perimter of campus. Some of the determining factors these days are:
Who owns the building?
Who owns the land?
Who or how is it run? campus, private, combination.
several private companies have 30 year leases on the college land (with a building that they built with private monies) and it could or not be campus housing depending on how the contract is set up- some organizations it is intergrated into the full compliment of the campus (South Campus Commons- University of Maryland, College Park). Other campuses allow third party vendors to have their programs privatized (many not all, are considered on campus housing.)
Fraternity and sororty houses might be locally or nationally owned (or campus owned/leased) and that many times are part of a neighborhood and owned by the campus.
Does the campus policies reach into the neighborhoods- jurisdiction and ownership of what look like private homes (many colleges own houses that they rent out to college students under the guise of being off campus houses but owned by the university (Cornell University).
These are some of the few considerations of determination of on and off campus housing.