ST. GEORGE — First-semester freshmen funneled into Utah Tech’s on-campus housing on Monday. The first students to know the university only by its new name, these freshmen enter St. George when affordable community housing is hard to come by. 

Nevertheless, students said their pursuit of housing was smooth and easy, thanks to organized waitlists and housing staff who work with students via phone calls across the country to ensure a successful housing experience.

Riley Daines, a freshman from Meridian, Idaho, said he chose to live on campus due to its proximity to his classes. Daines said the distance from Meridian to St. George didn’t impede the difficulty of finding housing.

“It wasn’t stressful at all,” he said. “It was easy.”

Another freshman from Whittier, California, found housing even though he was late on his application. 

“It wasn’t super stressful. I got housing basically right after I called,” he said. “It was pretty relaxed.”

How has Utah Tech accomplished such a smooth and “relaxed” method of providing housing?

Seth Gubler, Utah Tech’s executive director of auxiliaries and director of housing, said it’s due to how the on-campus housing views its purpose: to educate students.

“We try to provide an educational experience so that the student feels like she’s learning in the classroom and also at campus housing,” Gubler said. “We believe there’s more to our living environment than just putting a head on a bed.”

Gubler said the concern of housing staff for students helps the entire move-in and living process carry on smoothly.

Despite current on-campus rooms filling up within a couple months of opening, Gubler said the university does everything it can to extend housing invitation openings as soon as a student opts out of a contract. Housing staff will personally call and email waiting students to notify them about the housing openings.

“We actually still have some openings for this fall,” Gubler said. “We’re close to being full, but there were a couple of openings here last minute, so if a student were to show up today and say ‘I’m looking for housing,’ we wouldn’t turn them away.”

When Gubler first began his position, the university had about 250 on-campus beds. Now, Utah Tech has nearly 1,200. He said freshmen take up 70% of on-campus beds and sophomores 19%. On-campus rooms range from $375 to $475 a month for shared rooms and about $600 for private rooms.

Gubler said he views Utah Tech housing as an essential part of the university’s educational mission. He aims to teach students how to communicate and resolve interpersonal conflicts with support from resident assistants and understanding management.

“Students aren’t comfortable with conflict management and communicating their needs with others,” Gubler said. “There’s so many different lifestyles, expectations, backgrounds that come together in on-campus housing.

“In many cases, we believe the situations can be remedied. We want to get together and talk through this, you and your roommate. We’d like to talk through the tools that would help you have a successful conversation. We need to talk through those concerns and give the roommate a chance to rectify the problem.”

If a student doesn’t want to work out conflicts, whether they break housing rules or not, Gubler said, he still works with the student to find alternative housing options.

“We want to solve situations from an educational standpoint instead of punitive measures,” he said.

Utah Tech plans to demolish Nisson Towers, an on-campus housing complex built in the 1970s, in spring 2023. The 160-bedroom complex will be replaced with a modern complex of 560 beds, providing even more housing for Utah Tech students.

Photo Gallery

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.