(Radio Iowa) – The leaders of the residence and dinning programs at the University of Northern Iowa and Iowa State University say they have seen a trend where new students want to have a roommate. U-N-I’s Nick Rafanello says the isolation of COVID change the attitude for some about single rooms. “Since the pandemic, I think we’re seeing more students who want more engagement. That’s what we saw in some of our surveys that we have, that we’ve provided to our students have given us feedback,” he says. Rafanello says they’ve also seen that in programming for students. “Programming is up. Our satisfaction levels are up, and they just want to do more. They want to be around more people. So while students still want privacy with single rooms and things like that, they do want to get out and build community,” Rafanello.

I-S-U’s Residence Department director Amelia Cepeda says she’s seen some of that trend too. “I’ve been at Iowa State Since 2022 and during that time, we see students wanting roommates, particularly our first year students, and then those singles become more popular as they return for a second or third year,” Cepeda says. Cedpeda says the expect an increase in students and they plan to return Hamilton Hall to its previous double room setup. “Currently, those are all single rooms, and we plan to return most of them, almost all of them, to double occupancy rooms, and that would give us an additional 250 spaces,” she says.

The University of Iowa Residence Department director says they haven’t seen a big trend toward double rooms. The issue came up during the first reading of new room and board rates during the Board of Regents meeting last week. The University of Iowa is requesting a three-point-eight percent increase, I-S-U is requesting a three point-seven-seven percent increase, and U-N-I is requesting a three percent increase to room and board rates. The Regents will take a vote on the proposed rate increases at their April meeting.