In a recent article for University Business, Robert Goodwin explains how intentionally created student housing can help combat student burnout. Goodwin highlights several design elements that improve student housing infrastructure. Incorporating daylight into residence halls can improve mood, sleep, and cognitive performance, while ensuring the location of informal communal spaces fosters connection can help students decompress and find peer support. For graduate students, the author explains that privacy and respite are essential, as some students have unusual schedules due to the nature of their studies. “If student success and retention are tied to wellbeing, then residence halls are not peripheral assets,” argues Goodwin. “They are central infrastructure.”
