DELETE DUPLICATE UC housing more popular than ever

Living on the University of Cincinnati campus has never been more popular — and with a brand-new residence hall and special learning-living communities, emerging housing options are giving students even more reasons to call UC home.

“We’re seeing demand grow all around,” says Carl Dieso, director of Housing, Food and Retail Services. With overall enrollment and freshman class size poised to set records, it makes sense that around 6,800 have opted to live on campus this year — an increase of more than five percent over last year. But that rise isn’t just attributed to sheer population growth — 86 percent of freshmen will be residing in UC housing, a new university record. More upperclassmen are renewing their housing contracts, too.

In order to keep up with demand, UC for the eighth year has expanded capacity in nearby properties through a block lease program, with spaces available at University Park Apartments, University Edge, U Square, 101 East Corry, The Verge Cincinnati and CP Cincy.

Dieso attributes the trend to UC’s modern facilities, convenient and affordable packages and new offerings like specialized learning-living communities. ”There’s just a lot of good stuff happening, and I think folks are aware of that and they want to be part of it.”

New this year, UC has formalized its learning-living community (LLC) program, in which first-year students with a particular major or interest opt to be grouped together with similar students in designated housing and in the classroom. Different from theme housing that UC has offered in the past, LLCs offer an academic component and the intentionality. Before, theme housing would group students from one major together on a certain floor, sometimes without their knowledge. With LLCs, students apply to live and take classes together and share access to special programming in their residence, such as study groups and academic advising.

“Studies have shown that students who had been in a learning-living program their first year had higher levels of academic self-confidence, were more likely to mentor others and remained committed to civic engagement at the university that they were at,” says Aleia White, assistant director of academic initiatives for Resident Education and Development.

UC has opened three new LLCs for this fall while another existing program is making moves for its 10th anniversary.

New to the university this year and located in Stratford Heights building 10, the Audre Lorde Social Justice House is a gender-inclusive residence open to all students (freshmen and upperclassmen) who have a passion for activism, equity and inclusion. Audre Lorde (1934-1992) was a feminist writer and civil rights activist who used poetry to express the outrage at injustices seen during her lifetime.

“We felt as though her work coupled well with this spirit of activism that UC students have, particularly around gender identity and expression, and the intersectionality of that with race,” says Trent Pinto, director of Resident Education and Development.

What started as an effort to support students outside the gender binary find adequate housing evolved into an LLC with inclusivity as its purpose. It’s been something of a passion project for Pinto, who worked with many other departments in the university to get the Audre Lorde House off the ground, including the department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, UC Women’s Center, Title IX, the LGBTQ Center, the Department of Public Safety, Gen-1 and the dean of students office.

Fifteen students are moving into the house this fall, some attracted to the gender-inclusive element, others just following a passion for social justice.

“I think this is going to be our activist group, and that’s something that in this day and age we need to nurture — students who are engaged and willing to challenge one another for the betterment of the community,” Pinto says. “UC is the perfect breeding ground for that because we do have very engaged and active students.”

As far as special programming, Pinto says students in this house will work collaboratively to find ways to positively impact the student experience at UC and instill a sense of equity and inclusion for the greater Cincinnati community.

“These students care about being Bearcats,” Pinto says. “They care about being here. They care about people coming onto their turf and [going] up against their values. And I think this is the perfect community that can help engage and shepherd some of that energy.”