More than Housing Having a successful student housing complex means more than just offering the right design. “We believe it’s very important to create a living and learning environment,” says Trubiana. “So, at all of our communities we have RAs or community assistants (CA).”
At the company’s off-campus sites, the staff is called CAs. “They tend to be older students with excellent communications skills who are really customer service reps, that help not only set the tone for the community, but they’re also responsible for organizing the social, recreational and educational programming that we provide,” says Trubiana. In exchange for their services, the students receive free housing and, at times a stipend.
While some executives in the multi-family housing industry see the use of CAs as losing revenue on units that could be rented, American Campus thinks that the CA staff is actually the key to its success. “They set the tone of the community and help create the social interaction, which in turn creates raving fans out of our customers,” says Trubiana.
American Campus conducts resident surveys to find out what types of programs and services are of interest to the students. For example, the company has organized events such as volleyball, softball and soccer competitions.
To offer an alternative to students having their own parties, which sometimes can get out of control, says Trubiana, the properties will sponsor social events for the students, such as casino nights, and pool and welcome parties. “Food is often a major draw,” he says.
And, on an educational level, it offers programs such as time management, and drug and alcohol awareness seminars. In addition, it invites university officials to meet with its residents about resources that the university offers, such as health services, so the students know what’s available to them at the school.
A student housing provider also faces other management issues that don’t typically come up in conventional multifamily properties. For instance, the properties lease-up schedule is on an annual cycle; residents move in just before the beginning of the fall semester. Once the semester has started, there’s very little movement. Not only does American Campus have one shot to fill its buildings, but it needs to manage the turn of units and coordinate the move-in effort over the course of one week or less.
The leases also are different for student housing. While off-campus housing traditionally has a 12-month lease, the on-campus projects can offer academic-year leasing or 12-month leases.
Instead of joint leasing typically found in the student housing industry, each student has an individual lease for the unit in which he or she is living. “The reason why that’s done is not only for the student, but for the parent,” explains Trubiana. “It gives them comfort to know that if their [child’s] roommates move out, they’re not going to be responsible for additional rent, and that has value to both the student and the parent.”