Bold Scholars among students moving in to UTSA residence halls this week

AUGUST 20, 2024 — Today, 176 students will be moving into their UTSA residence halls as part of a special university program that is helping more students experience the important benefits of living on campus during their first year of college.

The students are part of the UTSA Bold Scholars program, which is reserved for students who have been admitted to UTSA as part of the university’s Bold Promise tuition assistance program. The Bold Promise program covers 100% of tuition and fees for four years for eligible students. It is open to first-time freshmen in Texas who rank in the top 25% of their high school classes and whose families have annual household incomes up to $70,000.

“Bold Promise is about creating access to college attendance, and Bold Scholars is about creating access to the whole college thriving experience that comes from being fully immersed in college life and living on campus with fellow first-time-in-college students,” said Tammy Wyatt, UTSA senior vice provost for student success.

“Bold Scholars is about creating access to the whole college thriving experience.”

A family helps their child move into their residence hall.

Bold Scholars live together in triple-occupancy rooms in Chisholm Hall, receive dedicated assistance navigating the university including specialized programming, and attend one-on-one check-in meetings, including a mid-term grade check-in meeting with program staff. This is the program’s third year.

Research shows that living in on-campus housing has multiple benefits. Students living on campus have greater academic success on average than peers living at home or in off-campus housing; they have higher GPAs and retention rates.

Bold Scholars students earned an average institutional GPA of 3.09 in Fall 2022, compared to 2.91 for other Bold Promise students and 2.88 for other UTSA freshmen. They also attempted and earned more credit hours than their peers. Bold Scholars attempted an average of 14.11 hours and completed an average of 13.08 hours.

Living on campus is especially valuable for first-year and first-generation college students, who benefit from close access to student success resources and peer networking. Of the 176 Bold Scholars moving into Chisholm Hall this week, 135 are first-generation students.

The Bold Scholars are among the thousands of new and returning UTSA students arriving on campus during Move-In Week, scheduled from today through Friday, August 23. Approximately 3,300 students will be moving into UTSA-owned properties on the Main Campus including Alvarez Hall, Chisholm Hall, Guadalupe Hall, Chaparral Village and Laurel Village. An additional 1,300 students will be moving into University Oaks, a community on the Main Campus that is managed by Campus Living Villages, a third-party company.

Helping such a large number of residents, many of them first-year students moving away from home for the first time, settle into their new homes is a major task. To make the new residence feel welcome on campus, hundreds of UTSA faculty, staff and students are volunteering to assist in this process.

They will serve in a variety of different roles, including greeting students and their families, giving directions, distributing carts, passing out water and even helping to carry the new students’ possessions. The housing facilities team will also be on call throughout the move-in process to help students with maintenance requests as they get settled in their rooms.

“Move-In Week is really a chance for the whole university community to come together and welcome the incoming students,” said Daniel Gockley, executive director of UTSA Housing and Residence Life. “When they arrive here with their families, they appreciate seeing so many Roadrunners there to welcome them to their new home.”

Like the UTSA Bold Scholars, other residents at the university have the opportunity to live with a particular group of classmates in a community setting. All students can apply to live in UTSA’s Themed Residential Communities, which promote a student’s academic and personal development by enabling those with common interests to live together in a supportive environment. Examples of these communities are the Engineering Focused Interest Group in Guadalupe Hall, the Honors Residential College in Guadalupe Hall and the Leadership and Service Floor in Alvarez Hall.

This year, all on-campus housing properties are at full capacity. With demand so high, the UTSA continues to add additional residence halls. The university’s newest residence hall, Guadalupe Hall, opened in 2021, and next fall, UTSA will add another community. Blanco Hall, which is currently under construction at the intersection of Barshop Blvd. and Tobin Ave. on the northwest corner of the UTSA Main Campus, will offer housing for another 600 students.

During Move-In Week, all incoming students will have multiple opportunities to make connections on campus. From 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday night, UTSA Housing and Residence Life will host a Block Party featuring music, games and activities outside Guadalupe Hall. From 9 p.m. to midnight on Saturday, August 25, students can attend the annual Late Night at the Rec.

Move-In Week marks the beginning Roadrunner Days, which runs through September 7. The celebration features a full line-up of events, seminars and socials that help students develop a sense of belonging at the university, encourage them to meet new people and introduce them to university resources that will help them succeed on campus and in the classroom.

— Matthew Boerger