Challenge: Given the importance of on-campus housing to a positive college experience, Boston University wanted to understand how well its student housing was meeting the needs of its students, and identify areas for improvement.

Objective: To evaluate students’ overall satisfaction with BU’s on-campus housing and the housing selection process, and identify specific likes and dislikes related to the resident halls across a range of criteria including location, room sizes, building style, access to dining halls, bathrooms, and amenities. Ultimately, the key objective was to develop strategies for critical ongoing renovations to current housing as well as for new housing construction, with the ultimate goal of ensuring a positive housing experience and students who live on campus throughout their undergraduate years.

Solution: A series of focus groups and in-depth phone interviews were conducted among on-campus and off-campus undergraduate students, to understand the overall on-campus housing experience and reasons and barriers to living staying on-campus. Findings and insights from the qualitative exploratory were incorporated into an online survey among all undergraduate BU students.

Result: Plan-it made recommendations regarding potential changes to the housing selection process, messaging to keep students on-campus, and guidance for future residential construction and renovations.