More than 200 expected to drop housing contracts
USU Housing could lose more than 230 on-campus contacts this spring from students who will take advantage of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ new missionary age requirements.
Shortly after the LDS church announced men could serve missions at age 18 and women could serve at age 19, USU President Stan Albrecht asked James Morales, the vice president for Student Services, to put together a task force.
“This task force would be charged to determine the impact on enrollment, the effect on revenues and to create strategies to mitigate any negative impact the change could have while capitalizing on any positive alternatives,” Morales said.
Among those on this task force was Steve Jensen, executive director of Housing. Jensen said the numbers they found as a task force will impact on campus housing. Based on “Intent to Vacate” forms, Jensen estimates housing will lose 229 more students than last year.
The task force found that two weeks after the LDS church made the announcement, mission applications increased by 471 percent.
“In a given week it used to be that the Church would get 700 applications,” Morales said in a Board of Trustees meeting. “They received 4,000 in a couple of weeks. The numbers are pretty dramatic.”
There are 25,676 students enrolled at USU as of Fall 2012. Out of this number, 15,034 indicated they were part of the LDS faith and 2,176 indicated other faiths in their records. Morales said the rest reported they were unaffiliated with a particular religion.
Morales said out of the 15,034 USU students who have declared a LDS preference, there are 1,058 males and 4,787 females who have turned 19 or will turn 19 between Sept. 1 of this semester and Dec. 31, 2013.
“That gives us 5,845 students or about 21 percent of our current enrollment that could potentially go on missions during that time frame,” Morales said.
Morales said the task force applied a 33 percent chance the 5,845 USU students who will be eligible to serve an LDS missions will do so. The projected loss of current enrollment they anticipated was 1,929 students, about 1,300 more than USU’s average loss.
Morales said by seeking information through the local LDS church, his team was able to get a more solid number. About 750 students are planning on leaving for this spring semester, compared to 210 last year. The LDS church projects an additional 600 students will leave next fall.
This could have a major effect on on campus housing, who offer year-long contracts but don’t penalize students if they decide to leave mid-year.
“If
they are leaving the university, they are relieved of their contract,” Jensen said, “We try to be as supportive as we can to students and that’s one of the ways we do it.”
He said by filing an Intent to Vacate form, students forfeit only their $100 deposit. In order to keep this deposit students, must sell their contract.
Jensen said if students come back to USU and live on campus, their deposit will be reinstated even if they did not sell their contract.
“We hope they will come back and live on campus,” he said. “They will be welcomed back.” Hannah Banks, a sophomore majoring in nutrition and food science who plans to leave USU for the spring to go on an LDS mission, said she is not selling her contract.
“I’m not planning on selling it,” Banks said. “I was able to fill out an Intent to Vacate form.”
“I think if I come back to USU I would live on campus again because it was a great experience,” she said.
– jerawood@aggiemail.usu.edu