In an interview with the Highlander, Andy Plumley, the assistant vice chancellor of auxiliary services, stated that beginning next school year the extra charge for suite-style residence halls such as Pentland Hills will be eliminated and they will instead only have price differences based on room occupancy and dining plans.
Plumley stated that currently for residence halls, price differs based on room occupancy — meaning if it is a single, double or triple room — the dining plan and the hall type. Hall type refers to whether it is a traditional residence hall such as Aberdeen & Inverness and Lothian, or suite-style such as Pentland Hills. For next year, Plumley stated that they have eliminated the suite charge as they have moved many of their learning communities there and did not want to place an additional financial burden.
When the Dundee Residence Hall opens, Plumley stated that they will continue the practice of having price differentials on room occupancy and the dining plan. The main reason for this, stated Plumley, is that “all of our buildings, no matter the age, basically provide the same program, amenities and services. This is very common for residence hall housing at universities nationally.”
Housing requests are generally based on a first come, first served basis, stated Plumley. He continued, “we recently have gone to a new housing management system, where residents select their buildings, room and roommates. Last year almost all of our residents satisfactorily placed themselves.”
Housing Services operate housing and residential dining solely from room and board fees. They set pricing to cover all operational expenses, all debt and all renovations, according to Plumley. “For the Residence Halls, we benchmark our rates to other UC campus residence halls,” according to Plumley. In order to account for the elimination of the extra suite charge, Plumley stated that Housing Services made several changes to residence hall rates for the 2019-2020 school year that resulted in an overall weighted average increase of approximately 1.16 percent.
