UNC officials and members of the town council discussed the issue of student housing Monday.

Council members expressed concern over the upcoming closure of Odum Village Apartments, a student housing complex that can hold nearly 500 residents.

UNC representative Anna Wu said if they wanted to keep Odum Village open, the university would have to install sprinkler systems in the buildings.

“However, since it’s not cost effective for us to provide the additional infrastructure and sprinkler the buildings, we have decided that these buildings are really at the end of their useful life,” she said. “We’ll be soliciting for a designer to work with us on the demolition.”

Once the buildings close, the students who might have chosen to live there will have to live somewhere.

Wu said the university has a high vacancy rate for other on-campus residence halls and will try to encourage students to stay on campus.

“We can encourage a certain behavior but our students still have that opportunity to make their own choice,” she said. “But we will be trying to work on our assignments and encourage them to stay on campus.”

In recent years UNC has closed two of its residence halls due to lack of occupancy.

Wu said it was their hope to open them again after the closure of Odum Village, but councilwoman Maria Palmer said UNC might have to consider lowering prices as a way to keep students on campus.

“That’s a lot of money for students who are struggling with the tuition and the economic situation,” Palmer said. “Kids are going in debt. Parents are going in debt. When your child tells you ‘I can save $200 a month by moving off campus’ how many of us are going to say ‘you’re going to stay on campus’ when money is a concern?”

Freshmen students are required to live on campus, but all other students have the option of living in an apartment or a house off-campus.

Mayor Pam Hemminger said the town currently has a petition to analyze how much space is available for off-campus living.

“We’re very conscious of the student population we have in town,” she said. “While we welcome them we want to make sure we’re being good partners with making sure students have that opportunity to be on campus.”

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