This year marks the 15th consecutive year for record enrollment at Samford, with the total population growing to 5,791 enrolled students, including both undergraduate and graduate programs. This growth, however, has caused the campus to become more and more constrained to hold its current population.
An increased incoming class comes with an increased limit for on-campus housing. This year, Samford has had to fill not only all of the freshman housing in Mountain View, Smith, Pittman, Vail and Evergreen Halls, but also put freshmen in other housing around campus. This forced Samford to look outward for housing arrangements to make up for the lack of space available on campus.
To solve this, Samford had to look off-campus and eventually settled with the Tributary Rise Apartments off Highway 280 next to the Summit. Samford is using one building there to host 92 students and it comes with a gym, pool and several other commodities.
Kyle Mitchell, Director of Housing & Residence Life, spoke on the search to find off-campus housing. He discussed how Samford leaders have been planning and researching option in order to support students with the growing enrollment. “A selct group started looking at off-campus housing options in early spring 2023 and continued to solidify plans through th esummer.”
“There were other housing options considered. Priorities included a space that allowed our students to live together within one complex as close to campus as possible,” Michtell stated. “The overall safety of the location and facility maintenance were also considered selection priorities. “
The rooms are furnished with new furniture and appliances similar to West Village. Each room has a kitchen, living space, laundry room, two bathrooms and two or three rooms. The rooms house two students, similar to Student Apartments next to West Village. The price for the rooms is similar to the current price to live in Beeson Woods.
Kerrig Kelly, resident manager at the Tributary for Samford, had discussed in how while there has been an adjustment period for all parties, there have not been many issues that have occurred. There have been some logistical problems such as maintenance, trash and using shared spaces with other tenants, but there has been a lot of patience due to this being new ground.
Jeremy Borman, a junior who lives at the Tributary, was originally planning on living on campus in Luther but offered to switch to the new off-campus option. He was hesitant at first but decided to switch after he saw the “really good deal” Samford offered. Borman talked about how so far, the experience has been nice but has come with some communication issues on Samford’s part.
“Living at Tributary has been a treat, I will say. The commute is a slight downside, but that in itself is not that big of a deal,” Borman. “However, there has been a lot of frustration when dealing with Samford Reslife. To keep it short, there has been a huge lack of communication and as a student living in a brand-new place, that’s not very helpful. I know not everyone on Reslife is to blame for it, however, something has to be said.”
One of the biggest concerns of living at Tributary was commute, as Highway 280 is known to be extremely busy throughout the day. However, so far both Kerrig and Borman said it has not been as bad as expected, only taking 15 minutes if you plan to travel while traffic is calm. During some of the busiest parts of the day, the trip from Tributary to Samford is 30-40 minutes. Kerrig believes that the commute has been “over-dramatized and over-stressed.”
Mitchell stated, “this is a temporay solution to help Samford Univerity accomodate the enrollment growth.”
For now, Samford has been able to solve its current housing issues, but with the continuing growing classes and on-campus waitlist plans need to be formed for the expansion of new buildings.
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