The ever-present sound of construction means new classrooms and dorms, but it could be bad news for UK’s low-income students.

According to the UK Campus Housing website, students pay $2,393 per semester to live in the Kirwan-Blanding complex for the 2015-16 school year — the cheapest on-campus housing option. These dorms make up just 5 percent of campus housing.

Soon, lower-priced dorms will stand empty or be torn down and new, more expensive dorms will likely fill the void. As a community we must ask, where will students from low-income families go?

“There’s tons of kids that want to go to UK that can’t afford it, so they don’t,” architecture freshman Jesse Cornelius said. “They stay in their hometown. If they did lower the prices, a lot more kids would show up.”

A month of “rent” in Kirwan-Blanding dorms will be just under $500 for the 2016-17 school year. Off-campus housing is often about the same price. For two person suites, which will be 65 percent of UK’s housing in 2016, students will spend $4,142 a semester — over $900 a month.

“I hope people look at the value that can come from living on (campus) and how enriching it is,” said President Eli Capilouto in an interview with the Kentucky Kernel. “Our financial aid arrangements allow (students) to cover housing too.”

While financial aid helps pay for housing, over $900 a month for rent is still expensive, especially for in-state students. Kentucky is one of the poorest states in the country, according to Poverty USA.

“The likelihood of students’ success increases when you live on campus,” Capilouto said. “Your likelihood of getting out of here in four years, which is a cost saving means I think, increases.”

While older dorms are replaced, students who cannot afford to live on campus have nowhere to go but off-campus apartments and houses. Like Capilouto said, those students are less likely to succeed than those on-campus.

On-campus students can take advantage of the Living Learning Program, known as residential academic experience. According to the LLP website, “Students involved in the Living Learning Programs are retained at higher rates, are more engaged in University life, adjust more quickly to the academic demands of college.”

Do students from lower-income families not deserve the success that comes with living in a dorm? According to Capilouto, “The price, when you compare it to our peers, and choices that students can make about what college they want to attend, you will see that we are (UK) where everybody else is,”

Loans and financial aid help low-income students come to UK, but living on campus can be a financial struggle. As Kentucky’s flagship university, UK needs to create affordable housing.

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