In preparation for the addition of approximately 2500 beds over the next five years, UBC is planning to institute a 7.5 per cent price increase for all student residences on campus, effective at the start of the 2010/2011 school year.

Andrew Parr, Managing Director of UBC Student Housing and Hospitality Services, made the presentation to AMS Council on Wednesday, April 14. He said that the increase is necessary due to the need for more beds for UBC students, especially in lieu of Vancouver’s shrinking rental market.

“We’re adjacent to arguably the most expensive real estate in Canada,” said Parr. “If you don’t live on campus, many students [are] commuting an hour and a half to two hours each way, which really has an adverse impact on their academic experience.”

Parr said that while many schools in the rest of Canada have so-called ‘student ghettos’ nearby—local, low income rental areas that are very close to the university—UBC students are often forced to search deep into the suburbs in order to find relatively cheap accommodation. UBC differs from many other universities in that much of its student housing is set aside for upper-year students. According to Parr, many schools, especially those in Southwestern Ontario, “really pump in first-year students and then say, ‘thank you very much, you’re on your own now.’”

Parr emphasized that this increase will not be an annual event, but instead a “one-time right-sizing.” Although housing prices at UBC residences do go up every year, the increases are generally modest, ranging from 2 to 4 per cent, and are mostly intended to adjust for inflation.

UBC, which is already the largest housing provider in Canada, plans on adding 567 modified-traditional beds in Totem Park by 2011, 960 shared and self-contained units at the Ponderosa hub by 2013 and 640 shared and self-contained units at the Law hub by 2015. The total expected cost of these projects comes out to approximately $200 million.

AMS VP External Jeremy McElroy argues that students shouldn’t have to bear the brunt of these costs. According to McElroy, AMS Council understands the necessity of inflationary increases and also accepts the need for higher rents at Gage and Fairview, which are still well below market rates, but doesn’t believe that there has been enough investment into the first-year residences to justify a 7.5 per cent increase. Instead, UBC Housing should look at other ways of raising revenue.

“The fact that the cafeterias are now under the control of Housing and Conferences and no longer strictly part of UBC Food Services, we feel that there are ways that they could probably make efficiencies and decrease the cost for students directly,” he said.

Moreover, McElroy is also uncomfortable with the doubling of UBC Housing’s ‘dividend’ to the university. UBC Housing, which acts as an ancillary of the university, is required to pay a certain percentage of its net income to UBC in order to support the university’s academic mission. This is the same for all of the university’s profit-producing wings, including Food Services, parking, the Bookstore, and—to some extent—Athletics.

Parr said that the increased pressure on the ancillaries is part of the broader economic challenge that the university has faced over the past few years. “Not only are ancillaries paying a little bit more to the core to support those academic goals, but there have been cuts to other areas, even on the faculty and academic side to make that economic challenge reduced.”

However, McElroy believes that this increase is placing an unfair burden on a select portion of the student population. “The contribution by Housing and Conferences goes directly into [UBC’s] General Purposes Fund, where tuition goes,” said McElroy.

“We’re viewing that as a targeted tuition increase, because it will only affect students in housing, and [those students will be] contributing more to the operating funds of the university than other students.”

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