A look into UAA Residence Life and on-campus living

As the fall semester once again creeps ever closer, students are preparing for the start of a new school year. For some, a part of that is preparing to move into – or return back to– the residential campus at UAA. 

Director of Residence Life Ryan Hill sat down with The Northern Light to talk about what new and returning students can expect from Residence Life. 

Unlike some colleges, UAA does not require new students to live on campus during their first year. Instead, UAA offers the First Year Residential Experience program, known as FYRE. 

According to the Residence Life website, students who have lived at UAA for less than two semesters, are under the age of 21 and have earned less than 18 college credits are automatically made a part of the FYRE community. 

FYRE students will be living in residence halls with other FYRE students, along with “staff who are selected with the needs of first year students in mind,” said Hill.

In addition, he said that FYRE programs are specifically built for the transition to college in mind. 

“You're living with other students who are in the same boat, going through the same experience. So … that's a pretty powerful experience,” said Hill. 

Though there is no requirement to live on campus, Hill said that there are some practical reasons for a student to live on campus. First and foremost is Residence Life’s proximity to the rest of the UAA campus; students are able to walk from their homes to class. 

“I would say that we have nice facilities — some … students don’t always agree with that — but compared to a lot of other schools and what a dorm looks like on a college campus, we have relatively new and nice facilities,” said Hill. 

UAA offers three residence halls, six Main Apartment Complexes and some Templewood Townhomes as housing options for students. According to the Residence Life website, some of the amenities include parking, internet, laundry, snow removal, university police patrolled parking lots and unlimited Wi-Fi access. 

“For many students, having a place to live on campus is a safe, stable home. To live on campus is really … the difference between being able to attend college and not being able to attend college,” said Hill. 

Hill said that Residence Life also provides a number of resources to students including 24 hour on-call crisis response, student peer and academic wellness leaders, resident advisors and professional staff residence coordinators.

When the university is closed, there will always be a resident advisor on-call for students. That means someone will usually be on-call between 5:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m. on weekdays, and on-call at all times on weekends and holidays. Each student will also have an assigned resident advisor that they can go to for help. 

Resident advisors also help create events and programming at Residence Life. Hill said that close to 600 unique events have been hosted at Residence Life in the past year. 

Returning students may remember that surveys from Residence Life come out in the fall and the spring. Hill said that student concerns in these surveys are the reason that Residence Life changed internet providers last year to provide better residential internet access. Previous student concerns about food in the dining hall led Residence Life to hire a director of dining services.

Hill said that another incentive to live on campus is the scholarships offered to residential students. He said that one concern that students often expressed in previous surveys was the cost of living on campus. 

For the 2023-24 school year, each student who lives on campus automatically receives a $1,000 General Housing Scholarship toward housing costs each semester.

Students who are in the Honors College or are UA Scholars will also receive $750 off of their housing costs every semester. Hill said that this scholarship can be stacked with the General Housing Scholarship.

One final option to decrease college costs for students is the Live and Learn in Alaska Initiative. According to the Residence Life website, “students who live in the Anchorage campus’s residential community will pay the equivalent of in-state tuition for both online and in-person courses taught through UAA as part of the Live and Learn in Alaska initiative,” which can save out-of-state students over $560 per credit they take. 

Hill said that “for the first time any of us can remember”, Residence Life has had to implement a waitlist for fall housing. He said that it’s unlikely just any one reason, but “I have to believe there's definitely evidence there that [the Live and Learn in Alaska Initiative] is a big driver.”

Those who haven’t yet signed up for UAA housing should still sign up for the waitlist, said Hill. He said that Residence Life is working to address waitlist students as quickly as they can. Hill recommends that students on the waitlist should check their emails regularly and be responsive if a spot opens up for them. 

Tours of the residential campus happen on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and the details can be found online.