25-06-2025
College students are getting new neighbors on campus: Their grandparents
At colleges and universities across the country, older adults are roaming the quads. These are not emeritus professors or late-blooming freshmen, though. They're residents, living in an increasingly common type of senior housing. A growing number of colleges and universities have started augmenting their campuses—and boosting their revenues—by building senior living facilities right alongside lecture halls and student dorms.
Dozens of projects are either built or planned in and around campuses all over the U.S., from Stanford to Notre Dame to the University of Florida, providing a much-needed source of housing built specifically for the needs of older adults while creating new sources of revenue for colleges that are seeing their student enrollment numbers fall and their futures in doubt. They're also creating a surprising social synergy between two demographic groups that don't often mix: college kids and senior citizens.
That unconventional pairing is becoming a draw for older adults, and making more universities think seriously about converting parts of their campuses from educational spaces to retirement communities.
'In the past, maybe people would move to Florida and retire from society. But now people want to stay engaged and involved,' says Cynthia Shonaiya, a partner at the architecture firm Hord Coplan Macht (HCM), which has designed several senior housing projects on university campuses, sometimes known as university-based retirement communities. 'Lifelong learning is something that is important to seniors nowadays.'
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