Additionally, Oltersdorf, along with vice president of IT Derek Benavides, has developed an online database that charts every program and initiative across the company’s portfolio. Launched last fall, the system already contains 1,996 residence life programs and has a social networking and blog-style architecture that allows CAs to comment on programs or search for specific ideas. “We look for the on-site staff to captain their ships because there are no better experts,” Peter says. “We want to make the CAs look brilliant in the eyes of everyone.”
Extracurricular Activities
Campus Advantage also wants to look brilliant in the eyes of the institutions whose students annually fill its communities. The rapport between colleges with their own student housing initiatives and off-campus providers looking for residents has traditionally been a competitive, and, at times, adversarial relationship. Campus Advantage’s efforts to enrich the residence life component of off-campus living are intended to begin to bridge that gap. The firm requires its properties to provide annual programming across a spectrum of social, academic, and life skill development curriculums (see “Course Requirements,” on page 31), all geared toward assisting residents to form a more solid and lasting connection with their alma mater.
Course Requirements
Campus Advantage properties provide programming across a spectrum of social and academic curriculums to help residents form a lasting connection with their alma mater.
Largely comprised of undergrad students, the Campus Advantage on-site staff nevertheless has to engage student residents in best-in-class residence life programming for the company’s strategic tactics to succeed. Yes, they do barbecues and pool parties, but resident life staff is also responsible for tapping into six core programming categories over the course of the academic year. Campus Advantage vice president of residence life Dan Oltersdorf explains the syllabus:
Civic Engagement and Volunteerism: “We’re striving to put forth opportunities for people to volunteer,” Oltersdorf says. “Luckily, today’s student is much more interested in getting involved. In Fort Collins, Colo., we just did a Habitat for Humanity build. It was on a Friday and I wanted to get out of the office to join them, but when I called on Wednesday we already had more students heading out to the site than we could handle.”
Building Community: This is the fun stuff. The social events range from traditional pool parties to concerts to Wii sports tournaments. “The key to social planning is to get our student staff on the ground to decide what their residents are interested in,” Oltersdorf says.
Academic Success: After packing in a ton of social planning for the first month-and-a-half after move-in, Campus Advantage turns on-site attention to academics around midterm. “We’ll increase hours for study amenities if they are not already 24/7,” Oltersdorf says. “We’ll also keep the coffee brewing, promote use of the conference rooms as study areas, go door-to-door with a midnight milk and cookie cart. We’ve even done faculty roundtables.”
Valuing Difference: College enables a greater awareness of the people around you, and Campus Advantage makes sure to tap into the multicultural aspect of university life. “At one community, we launched a program to have Indian students teach some of the Americans how to play cricket that turned into weekly cricket matches,” Oltersdorf recalls. “We’ll do international food potlucks or a winter newsletter focusing on holidays beyond Christmas. Anything to learn more about the different people around you.”
Life Skills: Believe it or not, red sweatshirts are still turning wash loads of whites into dryer loads of pinks. Campus Advantage works hard to assist residents broaden their life skills. “We’ll bring someone in from a credit union to talk about student loan management and budgeting and investing in your 20s,” Oltersdorf says. “At one property, we had a fashion show at the pool with professional attire donated by Nordstrom, and a representative from the career center came out to talk about how to dress for success.”
Sustainability: Today’s students have likely never known a time when environmentalism wasn’t intricately woven into all aspects of life, and Campus Advantage keeps the green message coming. “We require each property to do at least one program in sustainability every year,” Oltersdorf says. “That ranges from planting a tree on Arbor Day to implementing a full-scale recycling program. We also do a lot of educational initiatives on energy and water savings for shower- and power-hungry students.”
“The research tells us that moving off campus results in students less engaged with the college experience, who have a lower GPA, who graduate at a lower rate,” Oltersdorf says. “To build that bridge back to the institution, we try to emphasize that we understand it is vital to get them connected with the experience the institution wants them to have. Traditionally, the off-campus housing provider comes in looking for a list of people to market to rather than a partnership with the university on working together to serve the students.” Campus Advantage has forged strong relationships with many of its clients, including Texas A&M and the University of Florida.
Not that Campus Advantage is ignoring the marketing agenda in throttling its residence life offerings and working to integrate with its residents’ institutions. “We want to be more than just a friendly neighbor, though,” Peter says. “We want the colleges and universities to view us as an asset so when parents and students come to them and say they want to live off campus, Campus Advantage is either officially or unofficially the first name that comes to mind.”
Postgraduate Plans
That type of preferential plug will figure large into Campus Advantage’s plans for future growth, particularly as it abandons a revenue-at-all-costs strategy for qualitative over quantitative growth in portfolio building. Peter also is keeping an eye on its competitors who have gone public, including Austin-based American Campus and Memphis, Tenn.-based Education Realty Trust, as a means for gaining access to broader capital markets opportunities. While he says Campus Advantage is having “too much fun” as a private firm, he doesn’t rule out the eventual public option as a strategic necessity. “I know IPOs are getting a lot of looks among our competitors, and if capital is the issue, then certainly that is a great way to go,” Peter says.
The owner/operator model is likewise a platform that Campus Advantage is cognizant of as the company continues to grow. Critical to that consideration is the prospect of any conflict of interest in markets where the firm currently holds fee-management contracts. “We’ve created amazing cash flow opportunities for our clients, and you’d be insanely naive to think that there isn’t an opportunity to create those types of returns internally for the company to provide financial stability and further our operational expertise,” Peter says.
For the immediate future, the opportunities facing Campus Advantage remain strictly in portfolio building with a focus on retaining the spirit and ambition of a first-year resident assistant, while leveraging the scale opportunities and branding gravitas of a national student housing management firm.
This month, the firm’s executive team will head out to move-in day at campuses across the country to do just that. “There are some great opportunities and greatly underserved markets,” Peter says. “We want to maintain a can-do attitude: carrying luggage upstairs and helping out the maintenance guy. Whether that comes from our belief that residence life results in a better education and a closer affiliation with the institution or directly from our own resident assistant backgrounds, we want to preserve the culture the way it is at any cost.”
