Michigan colleges spend big on dorms as enrollments sag. Big draw or big waste?

Adam Ruddle began his college journey last month by moving into a new dorm at Ferris State University.

But Stadium Hall is not a typical dorm. It was built on the edge of the north end zone of Ferris’ football stadium, so Ruddle can see the practices of the football team, cheer squad and band runners on the track. He and his three roommates also can watch from the privacy of their room the college’s four-time NCAA Division II national championship team, which competed in its 2026 home opener on Friday night.

“It’s awesome,” said Ruddle, a Mackinac Island resident. “It’s a crazy view. It’s really, really cool.”

Ferris’ new $38 million Stadium Hall is among several new residence halls Michigan colleges recently opened to modernize housing and attract students in an era of fierce competition for a shrinking number of college-bound high school graduates.

From Western Michigan University’s new freshmen dorm featuring mass timber and mostly single rooms to Eastern Michigan University’s new on-campus apartments and renovations in recent years, colleges are spending tens of millions of dollars to tear down aging dorms and replace them with modern student housing.

The new dorms are being celebrated as the number of Michigan’s high school graduates is projected to drop by 20%, from 106,883 in 2023 to 85,131 in 2041 , according to the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education.

That’s why most colleges opening dorms are not adding beds. They are either matching the number removed from torn-down buildings or right-sizing the number of beds to match enrollment.

Fewer students in the future puts pressure on colleges nationally. Michigan’s postsecondary enrollment has declined 27% over the past two decades, from 834,682 students in the 2001-02 academic year to 608,170 in 2023-24, federal data shows.

Most public universities experienced a decline between 2016 and 2025 . Over the past decade, net enrollment has dropped 30% at Ferris, 25% at Western and 42% at EMU, while enrollment has increased by 20% at the state’s largest institution, the University of Michigan.

Building dorms was a big trend about a decade ago in states that were losing population, where colleges were trying to address stagnant enrollment, said Richard Vedder, an Ohio-based economist, professor and author of several books on higher education.

The results are mixed, Vedder said. Some colleges had trouble filling the new dorms and ended up with significant and long-term debt. He’s concerned that may happen at Michigan colleges with new dorms since the state’s population is aging, isn’t growing and the number of 18- to 22-year-olds is declining.

“Is this a strategy that’s likely to succeed?” Vedder said. “I’m dubious of its success given the state’s demographics and college enrollments.”

College officials counter that Michigan has scaled back its support to public universities by millions of dollars in recent years, so it’s difficult for universities to invest in upgrading residence halls, some of which are 40 to 50 years old and face deferred maintenance costing millions of dollars.

The state is barred from funding any revenue-generating facilities such as residence halls, but the buildings require maintenance, so schools calculate many scenarios about whether to renovate, retire or build new dorms, said Mia Murphy, chief policy officer of the Michigan Association of State Universities.

“As the universities are making these calculations … they want to make sure that they are market-competitive,” Murphy said. “Students have certain expectations that their parents or grandparents might not have had. We are trying to compete in the market. If you are going to renovate a building anyway, why not do something really unique like have it overlook the Division II national championship-winning football field? It’s pretty innovative.”

Students touring campuses look at academic programs but also amenities including dorms since most colleges require freshmen to live in the residence halls during their first year.

There are many “really cool learning spaces” at Ferris, said President Bill Pink. But he became aware that the university needs to modernize its on-campus housing, especially after his daughter moved into one of the dorms built decades ago.

“We needed to do something to upgrade where we ask our students to live,” said Pink, noting that the university’s dorms are aging and other colleges across the state were modernizing their on-campus housing.

Stadium Hall, with 282 beds, gives Ferris 12 active residence halls. This year, Ferris will no longer use Pickell Hall and Hallisy Hall, which offered a combined 300 beds.

Pink’s vision for Stadium Hall came years ago when he saw Central Hall, a dorm built adjacent to De Witt Field , home of the baseball team at Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids. He hopes to see two to three more new dorms on Ferris’ campus within the next decade, especially as more colleges are taking similar steps and upgrading housing.

“I need to make sure that when a student sets foot on campus, they look around and say, ‘This is my school,’” Pink said.

On-campus housing, which typically includes meal plans, costs between $14,000 and $16,000 annually, according to research by the College Board , a nonprofit organization working to connect students to college.

With tuition ranging between $12,000 and $45,000 annually, depending on the school, costs for students who live on campus can range between $26,000 and $61,000 annually.

Asked what might happen if universities didn’t modernize aging residence halls, Western President Russ Kavalhuna said, “They might choose a different place.”

Western this fall opened a four-floor, 1,000-bed dorm for first-year students known as Valley Oaks. The $110 million project features more than half of the rooms for single occupancy, a health and wellness space with massage chairs, an outdoor space on the roof, lounges for large gatherings and single rooms where students can do telehealth appointments or take a break from their roommates, said Roshona Porter, Western’s director of housing and residential life.

It is built out of timber, with large exposed beams on the ceilings of the dorm rooms, and has air-conditioning. Not only does it smell good, Porter said, it looks different from the cinder block dorm rooms of the past, with more light and is designed to feel more like a home.

Valley Oaks replaced Western’s Harrison/Stinson and Eldridge/Fox residence halls. It is the third on-campus residence that the university has built over the past decade after tearing down older facilities and replacing them with newer ones: Western Heights dorm in 2015 and Arcadia Flats apartment building in 2021.

“The university is making sure that we have the right number of beds for enrollment that we have,” said Porter. “We are interested in not just recruitment but also retention.”

That’s why Western has diversified its portfolio of options to house freshman to graduate students, Porter said. It also offers “living learning communities” where students with the same majors live together and programming around those majors is offered in the dorm.

“I don’t necessarily think that we are in competition” with other universities, said Porter. “Each university has its positives, and WMU stands out.”

Other colleges have also opened or renovated buildings, including EMU, which invested $200 million from 2022 to 2025 to build new student housing on campus, renovate existing dorms with air conditioning, improve Wi-Fi and demolish other buildings. Central to the plan was the 2024 opening of what officials hailed as “state-of-the-art” Lakeview and Westview apartments .

University of Michigan in Ann Arbor this fall opened its $649 million Wolverine Village , a complex of five residence halls with 2,300 beds. U-M differs from other Michigan universities opening dorms because it has experienced a record number of applicants in recent years and its enrollment is not decreasing. U-M increased its on-campus housing capacity by 25%, which officials say guarantees that first-year students will be able to live in the dorms on central campus.

At Ferris, Stadium Hall is going to elevate the university’s profile around the state, said Randen Brown, a first-year graduate student who is the dorm’s senior staff advisor.

“It will drive those students graduating from high school to give Ferris a chance,” said Brown, 23. “When I started looking into colleges, I didn’t even know Ferris existed. But I think Stadium Hall is going to put Ferris on the map for the more casual students and parents looking for colleges in Michigan. And once they come visit, I think they will be blown away with what Ferris offers in general.”

This story was originally published by Bridge Michigan and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.