The ripple effect from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ change in missionary age eligibility may be far-reaching — but its impact on demand for on-campus housing this year is likely to be minimal.
Jon Phister, owner and developer relations manager for Housing and Student Living at BYU–Idaho, said on-campus housing in Rexburg is filling up at a similar rate to that of previous years.
“Women’s housing is full; in men’s housing there are some vacancies, but we’re right on track to fill up,” Phister said.
Scott Jensen, associate director of administrative services at the University of Utah, noticed an inconsequential decrease in the number of students on the wait list for on-campus housing.
“Specifically our male wait list is actually significantly shorter than it has been in the past,” Jensen said. “Overall, we haven’t seen a huge decline in demand. We’re still planning on opening full.”
Utah State University experienced a temporary decline in wake of the announcement.
“It did have a pretty big impact on us (this) spring,” said Steven Jensen, executive director of housing and residence life at USU. “Our occupancy was really high winter semester then dropped significantly spring term, particularly among females.”
According to Jensen, numbers had returned to normal by summer term.
“Our numbers are back up for fall semester,” he said.
