Talking Stick - May/June 2019 - 31

On Your Campus
TODAY, INTERN HOUSING IS
THE MOST PROFITABLE SECTOR
OF RESIDENTIAL CAMPS AND
CONFERENCE SERVICES.

Does intern housing sound like your department's next big adventure? Here are key ideas to develop and implement a program at your
institution.

the down months of June and July when our
students went home for the summer. We
used the traditional marketing techniques
to gain interest by groups in the Dallas/Fort
Worth metroplex, and we also contacted the
academic groups on campus that already
held a number of summer day camps that
included everything from chess camp and
sport (basketball, soccer, and volleyball)
camps to computer programming camps
and our most popular math camp. That summer we had recruited more than 25 different
camps and special groups and made more
than $200,000 in rental revenue that would
cover most of our summer shortfall.
We continued to build student housing
as our population grew at an 8 to 10 percent
rate annually. The year was 2013, and we had
just opened our fourth residence hall in four
years. We had another 600 beds under construction and set to open in the fall of 2014,
which would bring us to 2,200 residence
hall beds. Not only was our campus housing
structure changing, but we also found we
were going to have to alter the way we looked
at summer camps and conferences.
We were optimistic that we could develop
this intern housing program, but we knew
there would be significant planning required.
We had to develop a reservation system,
policies and procedures, and disciplinary
processes. We also needed to convince the
administration that it was beneficial for our
campus to host university students who were
not affiliated with UT Dallas. Following the
lead of our Residential Camp and Conference
Services program, we began to focus on what
they call the three Rs: Revenue, Relationships, and Recruitment.
Revenue was very easily achieved, because the return on investment of housing
corporate interns is significant compared to
that of large camps and conferences. It is less

BUY-IN from administrators. Richard Kenney, director of the
* GAIN
University of Miami Conference Services in Florida, explains that

SPACE to house interns away from summer camps and
* IDENTIFY
conferences. Dan Dykstra, director, and Breanna Dahlin, business
services manager of conference services at the University of Colorado, Boulder, share that they have specific buildings they use for
interns and that they are given a specific number of apartments to
use within each.

over a two-week period they assessed who was calling them looking
for housing over the summer and determined that they had more
than 50 calls from interns, doctors, and researchers looking for a
place to stay. "With that knowledge in hand, we built a proposal to
start our summer intern housing program," Kenney notes.
OUT to your colleagues who have been there before,
* REACH
and seek out advice from institutions of a similar size. Kenney has
developed a list of institutions that offer intern housing
(see https://conferences.miami.edu/summer-intern-housing/
about-intern-housing/options-outside-miami.html).
POLICIES and procedures to address any concerns and
* DEVELOP
to foresee any future problems.
*
*
*
*

*
*
*
*

What will the registration process look like?
Will you have standardized dates or minimum stays?
Will you require full payment up front? Do you offer refunds?
How are roommates selected? How are roommate conflicts
resolved? Do you allow room transfers?
Do you have the same rules as you do with students? Do you
need to have some different rules, such as the visitation or
pet policy?
What does it look like when someone violates a policy? Will
you notify the home institution or the company the student is
interning for? Will you just require the person to leave?
Will you require proof of internship or other university
attendance?
What will your contract or agreement look like?

* MARKET YOUR PROGRAM.

* Create a website or video. The Georgia Institute of Technology
created this video to promote their campus:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-ks0VOUMvw&t.
* Reach out to your career services and corporate development
offices.
* Send emails and have events inviting local companies that offer
summer internships.
* Utilize Internet search optimization tools.
* Look into working with Unique Venues, a marketing company
with a newly developed intern housing marketing division.
* Contact human resources associations in your area.
* Go to companies' websites and look specifically for recruiters or
talent development specialists.
* Tell everyone you know who works for a local company that you
offer short-term housing for summer interns.
- Pam McElrath
MAY + JUNE 2019

https://conferences.miami.edu/summer-intern-housing/about-intern-housing/options-outside-miami.html https://conferences.miami.edu/summer-intern-housing/about-intern-housing/options-outside-miami.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-ks0VOUMvw&t

Talking Stick - May/June 2019

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