In conjunction with next year’s tuition increase, summer session prices for 2009 also reflect a four percent increase compared to summer session prices for 2008.

Director of Reslife, Krystal Schofield said, ‘The rate increases reflect the reality of cost increases that the University faces for labor, materials, utilities and contracted services.’

Despite this increase, Schofield firmly believes that the number of residents for summer school 2009 will not be affected.

Summer school students, who choose to live on campus, will reside in Vaughn Center.

Housing for summer school students rotate every year, so that no hall is open year round. Schofield said, ‘The University hosts camps and conferences during the summer that also utilizes some of UT’s buildings during portions of the summer.

The larger impact on the buildings they choose to keep open is determined by both facilities and maintenance needing time to complete projects and schedule repairs over the summer.’

Last year, students were housed in Austin, and the year before that they were housed in both Smiley and Urso.

There are plenty of benefits to living on campus; some of these benefits are that students don’t need a car, they are close to classes, and they have fixed expenses and have no need to buy furniture.

Summer is the perfect time to take classes.

According to Karen Full, ‘Summer’s accelerated format is a great time to get ahead on degree requirements, catch up on extra courses that could perhaps be used toward a minor or simply to gain knowledge on other subjects.’

Nevertheless, many students choose to live off campus. UT senior and previous summer school student, Winta Assefaw chose to live off campus during summer school.

Assefaw recalled, ‘There is a lot more to do [off campus] and there is no meal program during the summer, so you would have had to order food a lot.’

However, dining services does offer the purchase of UT dollars as well as a block meal plan each summer. For summer 2008 the cost of the 20-block meal plan was $145.

Assefaw also considered some of the perks to living on campus. She said, ‘The plus to living on campus would be that it is a small group of people, so you get close; it’s a more intimate environment.’

The high cost of living on campus during summer school and the constant price increase has undoubtedly left some students in a tough situation. Similar to Assefaw, Pooga Patel, UT senior and previous UT summer school student, reflected on her summer school experience saying, ‘I lived off campus, and I would do it again.

I was only taking one class and it was too expensive to live on campus.’
Despite the recent financial crisis, and the push for students to take summer school courses, the number of students for summer school 2009 appears to be on track with 2008 summer school numbers.

Additionally, the number of summer school students planning to live on campus has not fluctuated in comparison to residents of summer school 2008.

The deadline to register for 2009 summer classes is April 21.

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