Wayne State 'problem': Too many students want to live on campus

The giant sign hanging next to the elevator lists nearly two dozen events happening on the Wayne State University campus during the first couple of weeks of school. The name tags on each door are adorned with the WSU Warrior logo.

And inside Alan LeBray's room -- let's just say it looks like what you'd think a freshman dorm room would like.

But LeBray has a good excuse for the mess. It's moving day for the 18-year-old from Detroit.

And he's not particularly happy about that.

That's because LeBray is headed out of the Hotel St. Regis to live in a campus residence hall.

"I liked living here," LeBray said of the luxury hotel, complete with maid service. "I think I will miss it."

Lebray, who moved out on Tuesday, is among about 90 Wayne State University students who started this school year with a room at the boutique hotel next to the Fisher Building because of a housing crunch on Wayne State's Midtown Detroit campus.

It's a unique situation for Wayne State, which for decades was viewed mainly as a commuter school for kids from the suburbs. It had some apartment-style living spots, but it wasn't until 2002 that residence halls were built. There are now seven on campus with a capacity of about 3,000 students.

Detroit's resurgence has increased students' interest in living on campus and, for the past several years, the school has had a waiting list for its dorms going into the summer. But the wait list has always worked its way down to zero by the start of classes.

Not this year.

By July, the university still had hundreds of students on the wait list to get into a dorm room. Officials contacted students to see who could commute and who was living outside of driving range and who would need spots.

Then they converted the lounges on the floors of each residence halls into bedrooms, but they still needed more room.

So they rented two floors at the St. Regis, a luxury hotel built in the 1960s to cater to auto executives when GM's headquarters were in the nearby General Motors Building, now called the Cadillac Center.

It's set up like any other residence hall -- including security and residence life staff. There's a 24-hour shuttle running to campus that stops by every 15 minutes. Meals are eaten in the on-campus dining areas.

And the cost is the same -- about $5,000 for room and another $3,500 for board for a first-year student. The university has more than 20 room-and-board rate combinations.

"We expect living in the hotel not to be a detriment," said Wayne State chief housing officer Timothy Michael. "We've worked hard to make sure they are still connected to campus."

The students aren't complaining. Living in the hotel means fresh linens and maid service. And there's something cool about living in an upscale hotel.

"I like it," Sherami Fernado, 18, of Birmingham, a freshman. "I feel like I'm really getting to know these students who are living here."

The number of students housed in the hotel is slowly dropping -- today there were 65 -- as housing assignments on campus got sorted out. Dorm room beds get freed up over the course of any semester, as some students drop out of school for a variety of reasons or decide to commute to school.

Wayne State officials believe all the students will be out of the hotel by the end of September.

Wayne State hired an outside firm to do a housing study recently and shows a projected shortage of 300-800 beds in the near future. The university is talking to people around campus about renting spaces for their students and the campus' master facility plan has spots for additional residence halls.

The university's location is drawing the students to campus, Michael said. Many students want to live -- or try living -- in an urban environment, and living on campus lets them do so safely. There's also easy access to Midtown and downtown Detroit.

"It's really becoming an attraction for students," he said.

Contact David Jesse: 313-222-8851 or djesse@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter; @reporterdavidj