University is a unique experience for students as it often grants new freedoms to people who turn 18 in their first year. One of those newly experienced freedoms is housing.
Do first year students receive any help or assistance in finding accommodation? Specifically, do Dixie State University athletes get extra help from their coaches in finding accommodation on campus? To answer this question simply … it’s confusing.
Eighty percent of college athletes get some form of scholarship or academic grant. This money is then returned to the athletes, and they can decide how to use it such as for groceries, school fees, accommodation, and how the athlete wishes to spend this money is up to them. A common practice is to use this money to pay for housing costs while studying.
“The housing scholarship money is provided to the student-athlete to use for their accommodation,” said Mike Olson, associate athletic and academic director and student-athlete wellness at DSU. “While the financing of their housing is guaranteed, the location of their housing is based on [availability] and off-campus availability.
So there is really no benefit to the student-athletes in this aspect. One of the ways the Trailblazer volleyball team is using housing to its advantage is by reaching out to high school kids who will soon be attending DSU, so they can all stay in the same building.
“One of the current players [at DSU] texted me and asked if I needed a place to live next year, ”said Lizzy Clark, an exercise science major at Sandy. “I hadn’t even started looking at that point, and then she gave me her [housing] information to managers at that time, and it all worked from there.
Clark’s experience is not what every athlete has, as Lauren Mena, a freshman elementary school student from Fountain Valley, Calif., Had a completely different experience.
“While I was going down for my unofficial visit, we arranged a visit with an apartment complex and they were able to show me around while I was in town,” Mena said. “We could live where we wanted, and the coaches said it was totally up to us.”
If college coaches were able to help students with the housing situation, it would give athletes a huge advantage in finding housing. Athletes do not have the option of being placed on the top of the waiting list, obtaining priority accommodation or any other benefit than other students.
That being said, athletes who receive a scholarship have an advantage over other students who do not receive any form of financial aid, as they not only have to worry about where to live while in college, but also how which they will afford.
