Racial and Economic Stratification on Campus: The Relationship between Luxury Residence Halls, Race, and Academic Outcomes

• Published in: Journal of college student development 2023, Vol.64 (1), p.108-113
• Main Authors: Brown, Joshua Travis, Volk, Fred, Kush, Joseph M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Academic Achievement; Advantaged; Black students; College Housing; Dormitories; Economic Factors; Educational Environment; Educational Facilities Design; Grade Point Average; Grades (Scholastic); Higher Education; Predominantly White Institutions; Race; Racial Factors; Residence; Social Class; Social Stratification; Socialization; Standard deviation; Student Experience; Students; Undergraduate Students
• ISSN: 0897-5264; 1543-3382; 1543-3382
• DOI: 10.1353/csd.2023.0006

The design of luxury residence halls has created tension between the ideals of equitable educational experiences and increased competition to attract enrollment, as such facilities are often priced beyond the financial reach of students whose presence is essential to creating a diverse educational experience for all students. As university leaders face pressures to increase enrollment, some have allocated millions of dollars to attracting students using a new type of luxury residence hall design--hybrid luxury--that combines high-end amenities and high socialization design (Cramer, 2021; Eligon, 2013). While hybrid luxury halls emphasize added amenities such as coffee lounges, co-working spaces, and exclusive resident-only fitness studios, they also incorporate certain design elements to strategically increase patterns of student socialization. What remains unknown is (a) how emerging hybrid luxury designs may be associated with academic outcomes and (b) whether student academic outcomes differed in other forms of residence hall designs conditioned on race and homophily opportunity. The focus of this articles takes up these two questions.