Olivia Bledsoe at Campus Lodge on Sept. 22.
Editor's note: This story is featured in OU Daily's fall magazine, which will be available in print in mid-October. Check out the other featured stories at the bottom of this article.
The Southeastern Conference is described as one of the most lucrative conferences in the U.S., garnering 30 national college football titles since it was established in 1933, the most championships won by a single conference.
Earlier this year, OU announced it would transition to the SEC in 2024, a year earlier than its initial agreement, exemplifying the university’s desire to quickly reap the benefits the SEC presents. The SEC only falls behind the Big 10 in per-school payouts, delivering in 2022 each of its members $49.9 million while the Big 10 delivered $58.8 million to each school except for Nebraska, Maryland and Rutgers.
While OU, its athletics department and its administration gear up for the historic move, students are impacted as living in Norman becomes more expensive, a trend expected to accelerate in the new conference.
Norman Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Scott Martin told OU Daily the conference has some of the most loyal fans, driving viewership, attendance and economic opportunity in SEC college towns.
Last year, Martin visited three SEC universities — Alabama, Arkansas and Kentucky — during their home football weekends with a subcommittee comprised of fellow Norman officials, economic development specialists and marketing strategists.
On the subcommittee’s visits, they saw significantly more apartments, hotels, mixed-use housing and multi-family housing in those cities than in Norman, Martin said.
As of Sept. 27, The median rent for all bedrooms and property types in Norman was $1,300, according to Zillow.
The median rent for the 16 cities with universities that will be in the SEC next year was $1,621, as of Sept. 27. Twelve of the 16 cities’ median rent was more expensive than in Norman.
In Austin, Texas, the median rent was 69% higher than in Norman, as of Sept. 27. It was 31% higher in Fayetteville, Arkansas; 26% higher in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and 23% higher in Lexington, Kentucky.
Martin said OU’s move to the SEC would contribute to additional increases in rent across Norman.
Meanwhile, some students struggle to afford the city’s current rental prices.
Olivia Bledsoe remembers resorting to ramen or popcorn for dinner to save money despite her iron deficiency. She needed the extra money to pay rent at her apartment in Norman.
When she moved into Campus Lodge on Beaumont Drive in 2020, her rent was about $360 per month. Bledsoe now pays over $500 each month.
For apartment complexes that market to OU students, residents typically sign individual leases for a bedroom, a bathroom and a shared living space. At Campus Lodge, the rate for a unit with four bedrooms and four bathrooms is $529 a month per resident, meaning all four residents in a unit pay $2,116 collectively.
OU Daily compiled rental rates per resident for four-bedroom, four-bathroom units across popular student apartment complexes in Fayetteville, Arkansas; Tuscaloosa, Alabama and Lexington, Kentucky that utilize the same leasing structure as those in Norman.
Bledsoe started at OU in 2019 before she transitioned to online classes at Redlands Community College to earn her associate's degree in liberal arts.
Bledsoe worked 32 hours per week for $12 an hour at a local business. She paid $450 for rent each month during this time. She also had student loans to pay off, which were an additional $450 a month, leaving her with $159 for gas and food each week.
“It was very hard,” Bledsoe said. “It was literally paycheck to paycheck.”
She said the financial stress compounded her already existing mental health issues. She relied on financial assistance from her family, mostly her aunt, she said.
“(It was) the pressure of, ‘What if I have to ask my parents for help again?’ Then thoughts of, ‘Am I a disappointment?’” Bledsoe said.
Bledsoe’s hourly wage was above Oklahoma’s minimum wage but below a living wage in the state.
Oklahoma’s minimum wage is $7.25, which follows the federal minimum wage law. According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s living wage calculator, a living wage in Oklahoma for an adult with no children is $15.49 an hour.
The living wage calculator’s estimate of living wage includes food, child care, health care, housing, transportation, civic engagement, broadband and other necessities. It also accounts for the additional cost to families associated with income and payroll taxes.
Bledsoe now works in the OU Center for Public Management where she makes $16 an hour, which she said alleviates some of the pressure.
She hopes to return to OU after she earns her associate’s degree to pursue international studies.
For Will Bouchard, a management information systems junior, making $12 an hour is hardly enough to cover rent and other living expenses.
He works 30 hours a week at a fast food chain to make ends meet while taking 13 credit hours. His hourly pay, however, is $3.49 below the state’s living wage.
Bouchard currently pays about $440 in rent at Campus Lodge each month, which he said is almost $100 more than what he paid two years ago when he first signed a lease at the complex.
This fall is Bouchard’s first semester back at OU after taking a year off from school due to mental health issues that were exacerbated by being a full-time student and working over 30 hours a week at a local restaurant.
“It was a very high-demand job,” Bouchard said. “My grades dropped after that. Then, I wasn't able to do classes and work at the same time that fall semester.”
Danielle Dunn, the director of communications at OU’s Office of Admissions and Recruitment, wrote that students must consider housing and food costs in their financial plans to attend college.
She wrote being able to obtain enough financial aid to cover off-campus rent is a concern for many OU students.
“OU recognizes attending college is a big investment and living expenses are a large piece of that cost,” Dunn wrote. “OU encourages all students who may be having difficulties affording rent to contact the Student Financial Center to see what resources may be available for them.”
At the OU Board of Regents meeting in September, OU President Joseph Harroz Jr. said fewer and fewer people are pursuing a university-level education in the country, and OU needs to be aware of how to market itself amid this trend.
According to a New York Times article, 74% of young adults believed a college education was very important last decade. Now, that number has dropped to 41%. Some people say pursuing higher education is not worth the price tag.
Harroz told OU Daily that people want the best value degree.
This year, OU raised tuition and fees for in-state students for the second time in three years and for the third time for out-of-state students. Harroz said OU has maintained staying affordable despite these tuition hikes.
OU is nearly 6% cheaper on average for an in-state student than it was five years ago, Harroz said. He said it is about 1% more expensive on average for out-of-state students in that time frame.
Thirty percent of Bouchard’s monthly income goes to his rent, classifying him as cost-burdened, like 46.92% of Norman renters who are low- or moderate-income, according to a presentation from the city at a Norman City Council town hall in October 2022.
Bouchard said while he took time off of school, he worked hard to address his mental health struggles, but he’s worried that with a full class load and 30 hours of work a week, he’ll slip back into an unhealthy mental state.
“No matter where you are, you're gonna have to always put in the work to maintain the progress you've made,” Bouchard said. “If there are all these extra stressors, and having to think about where I might have to move next semester if they keep trying to raise my rent, then it just makes it all harder. I don't think it's ever impossible, but it's hard.”
City Manager Darrel Pyle said during the town hall that there are 44,915 households in Norman. Of those, over 19,000 are at or below 80% of the area’s median income of $59,866, making them qualify as affordable housing. This means Norman is about 9,000 affordable housing units short of demand, Pyle said.
Martin said Norman is lacking in all areas of housing, causing the city’s current supply to be more expensive.
He said he expects rent to increase in Norman due to growing demand, specifically based on the number of first-year students enrolling at OU each year. For the last three years, OU’s first-year classes have broken enrollment number records.
The increase in the student body population reflects the growing student population in SEC cities, Martin said.
Enrollment at the University of Arkansas has increased all but one year since 2002, according to the Fayetteville Flyer. This fall, Arkansas reported its highest-ever fall enrollment with 32,140 students, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
The University of Alabama announced a record 39,623 total students.
This fall, the University of Kentucky welcomed a record total of 34,070 students.
As OU transitions to the SEC, Martin said the anticipated population growth and housing demand in Norman are significant. To ensure rental prices in Norman don’t get out of hand, the city needs continued growth in the rental market, he said.
In early September, Team Norman, a group of city and university leaders, proposed a $1 billion entertainment district at Rock Creek Road and 24th Avenue Northwest described as a mixed-use development featuring single-family housing, townhomes and apartments among retail shops, restaurants, bars, offices and a hotel.
The city will also consider two multi-family residential structures on Boyd Street and a 75-unit affordable housing space at the northeast corner of Imhoff Road and Oakhurst Avenue.
The city has received a number of building permits this year for multi-family residential apartments including one on McCullough Street, Dean’s Row Avenue, Monnett Avenue and two on Boyd Street. Applications for multi-family apartment buildings on College Avenue and Symmes Street were also submitted.
OU’s move to the SEC makes financial sense, Martin said. He said the move would pay off long-term, despite the estimated increase in rent.
“It’s the national trend, but then a little bit more zeroing in on the fact that we're going to SEC and what that means,” Martin said.
Read other stories featured in OU Daily's fall magazine:
This story was edited by Taylor Jones, Karoline Leonard and Peggy Dodd. Sophie Hemker, Mary Ann Livingood and Nikkie Aisha copy edited this story.
