President Chiang: Purdue expects plateau in enrollment will ease housing demand

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — As housing at Purdue University and within the surrounding cities becomes harder to find, Mung Chiang, the president of Purdue University, believes that “the residential undergraduate enrollment is closing to a plateau.”

Chiang discussed the future of the university’s enrollment and how it plans to respond to the housing crisis afflicting the Tippecanoe County area during a media panel Wednesday with local reporters.

“By the time these recently approved projects are completed, the housing availability on campus will have increased by 35 percent compared to 2013. Whereas the undergrad enrollment by then will not be growing,” Chiang said. “In other words, housing availability will surpass enrollment increase."

The first complex is expected to hold almost 1,000 students and be completed by fall 2025. The second project is expected to add about 896 pod-style beds and be completed by summer 2026.

The need for additional housing is a crisis that both Lafayette and West Lafayette have experienced over the last decade.

Since 2013, Purdue University’s enrollment has increased by more than 12,000 students or by about 31%, which slowly led to students needing housing. This need trickled off campus into the West Lafayette and Lafayette housing markets.

Purdue's two projects will address the cities' housing shortages, but the university's slow response to student housing impacted the surrounding markets over the past decade, according to a market study conducted by Don R. Scheidt & Co., Inc., for the Tippecanoe County government.

The study highlights that since 2012, the West Lafayette government approved significant numbers of housing projects throughout the city to address the increased demand. In total, these projects have added about 2,700 units of housing.

In 2019, the city briefly addressed the housing demand after new high-rise apartment complexes entered the market, but that changed after the 2020 pandemic and the introduction of remote study, which temporarily eased the local housing demand.

“Thanks to growing student enrollment, the occupancies have rebounded and there is now a shortage of student-oriented apartments within areas proximate to the Purdue University campus," the report concludes. "Property managers reported waiting lists for specific unit types and a high percentage of preleased units have been reported for the 2023-2024 academic year, with some managers already pre-leasing for 2024-2025.”

During Wednesday's interview with Chiang, the current state of housing became a focal point of discussion.

In previous years, in order to address the large number of incoming students, Purdue University converted several conference rooms into four-bed-dorm rooms. This year is no different.

Chiang understood the concern this issue might raise with some students and parents but believed it was the best option Purdue could do until the completion of these new housing projects.

“I wish that buildings could be constructed overnight," Chiang said. "Maybe some construction engineers are working on that right here at Purdue, but in the meantime, it takes more than a day to finish building new buildings of that size.

“We’re trying our very best to expedite that process," he said. "We are working to add capacity and availability in a variety of means, including master leasing more availability throughout West Lafayette.

“We have added another 5% of our 700 beds compared to just a year ago in order to provide as much availability during this transition time as possible.”

While not ideal, these additional options give students who might be looking for a lower cost of living the ability to weigh that decision when deciding on housing, Chiang said.

“We do have 38,000 undergraduate students here on campus," he said. "We hope that it will be 100% satisfaction and happiness, but sometimes maybe 1% of a percent would not be fully accommodated,” he said.

"We would like to make sure we listen to everyone and try our very best as the situations for every individual,” he said.

Noe Padilla is a reporter for the Journal & Courier. Email him at Npadilla@jconline.com and follow him on Twitter at 1NoePadilla.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: President Chiang discusses Purdue's need for student housing