Sophomore acting major Jada Soltau said while all first-year students and sophomores pay the same standard rate for on-campus living in the quads, terraces and towers, there are different living conditions within dorm halls in each location.

“It’s just not fun going into a friend’s dorm, and they have all of these nice living amenities, and some of the others are left with not as clean or sanitary conditions,” Soltau said.

Revenue generated from housing at Ithaca College met the college’s budget for fiscal year 2025, despite the college being in a $9.2 million budget deficit.

The college’s budget deficit is largely because of a drop in enrollment following the COVID-19 pandemic. In Fall 2019, there were 6,266 students enrolled at the college, but in Fall 2024, there were only 4,767 students enrolled.

Tim Downs, chief financial officer and vice president of finance and administration, said 80% of the college’s revenue comes from tuition, room and board. He said one reason the college came in on budget was because a large number of seniors decided to stay on campus.

At IC only seniors are allowed to live off campus. Downs said the 2024-25 academic year was the first year where the college saw an increase in seniors staying on campus.

“We believe that’s because the cost for what you get off campus is not great,” Downs said. “They looked at that cost and said, ‘Whoa, it’s pretty expensive. Let’s go back on campus.’”

Downs said the college is renovating two lower quad residential buildings, Landon and Eastman Hall, in Summer 2025. He said the college is renovating these dorms as part of an ongoing effort by the college to improve residential life without a substantial financial investment.

“We’ll do student surveys to see what students in the buildings think, and we’ll get a feel for what works. If we did something and students don’t really care, we probably shouldn’t continue investing in that.” Downs said.

“But if we did something, they really liked it, or we didn’t do something and they really wanted it, then we’d be like, OK, well, let’s go for the next one. Let’s change that and figure out how we’re going to get it done,” he added.

On and off-campus housing

Soltau said she has generally had a good experience with housing at IC. Her main critique is the quality of housing in certain dorms compared to others when all students are paying the same price for their living situation.

“If you have some students living in renovated dorms and others that are stuck in unrenovated ones, then what’s the point of having them all be open for students to live in?” Soltau said.

Senior acting major Ruth McCoy Miles said she chose to live in an off-campus apartment during her final year as an undergraduate student. Miles said many of her friends who attend other colleges and universities can live off campus as soon as their freshman year; however, Ithaca College requires students to stay on campus until their senior year.

“At the end of the day, I get to come somewhere that’s completely removed from where I take my tests and have my performances and all of these stressful things,” Miles said. “But then on the other side of that same coin, it does feel a little bit more socially isolated.”

Miles said the process of securing an off-campus apartment was difficult for her roommates, who had to pivot after their apartment was unexpectedly leased to a different group that signed the paperwork before them.

“They had signed a lease and then someone else was like, we also signed a lease there, and then the other people paid their deposit first and got the house,” Miles said. “It was crazy, so it was very competitive to find a place that fit all of our needs.”

Ithaca housing market

According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s HUD USER, the monthly rent for a one-bedroom in Ithaca in 2019 was $941, while in 2025, it is $1,489.

Miles said she was prepared to pay the high price of renting alone in Ithaca before her current roommates asked her to live with them because of the freedom living off-campus gives her.

“I think it’s worth it because this is my space,” Miles said. “Here we get to choose who we live with and what we do with this space.”

Jeffrey Golden, associate vice president of auxiliary services, said the college tries to address the issues created by the Ithaca housing market by providing on-campus employee housing.

Golden said the college was left with vacant residence halls because of the drop in enrollment following COVID-19. He said Ithaca has bot using.

“You try to come and visit here, there are not enough rooms to go around and the ones that are available are prohibitively expensive,” Golden said. “And in the case of long-term, ‘I’m trying to live here, I’m trying to work here,’ there are frequently not enough to go around.”

“Also, many of them are largely prohibitively expensive,” Golden added. “So while we have this building empty, is it possible for us to try to address either of those issues?”

The college provides employee housing in Boothroyd Hall for $600 a month rent. Golden said the three types of employees who typically utilize the on-campus housing are employees who are new to Ithaca, only in Ithaca for a few days out of the week and cannot afford to live in Ithaca.

“I might also just have been homeless, like I might have been living in my car,” Golden said. “This might actually be my best housing option, not just an expedient solution to a temporary problem.”