The Student Housing Matters blog explores ideas with leaders in higher education and the student housing profession. This is the place to find stories from those who have worked in the field for many years, podcast interviews, and videos about relevant topics in the student housing world.

It’s about matters relating to on-campus student housing, as well as why quality on-campus student housing really matters. We want this blog to serve as a forum for sharing ideas and insights about how your on-campus student housing can do things beyond simply housing students. How it can be used as a more powerful tool to recruit and retain students on your campus. We look forward to you joining us in the conversation.

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Posts by: Alton Irwin

Podcast

Podcast | Getting Out of Debt and Staying Out

May 15, 2017

One of the biggest topics in higher education these days is student debt. And Timothy Evans has an incredible back-story that makes him passionate about getting out of, and staying out of, debt. And with where Tim works, he is in a unique position to speak into the lives of students staring down the possibility leaving…

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Blog

“Skipping the College Tour”

May 5, 2017

A recent article in the New York Times advises families to “Skip the College Tour.”  Many students and their families count on the college tour to give them a feel for what campus is like, and some even say that the tour sealed the deal on their college choice. Experts in psychology and behavior economists…

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Podcast

Podcast | How I Got Into Student Housing – Jeff Kirkpatrick

April 7, 2017

In the continuation of this “How I Got Into Student Housing” series, COCM’s Jeff Kirkpatrick shares his story of how a dangerous situation propelled him into being an RA and eventually a full time student housing professional. If you’ve missed the previous episodes in this series, we’ve been talking to housing professionals to understand how they…

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Student Housing Professionals Come Together

March 23, 2017

Each year, COCM holds an Annual Meeting, bringing together employees from around the country to the COCM home office in Birmingham, Alabama.  We enjoy the opportunity to connect with colleagues in person that we work daily, through the use of technology.  It is a concentrated time where professional development, networking, and personal growth are the…

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7 Things College Students Should Know About Credit

March 14, 2017

This is a great article from MINT for helping students understand the implications of some of their decisions concerning credit during their college years. Farnoosh Torabi is America’s leading personal finance authority hooked on helping Americans live their richest, happiest lives. From her early days reporting for Money Magazine to now hosting a primetime series…

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Blog

COCM Cares!

February 27, 2017

COCM celebrates a “Capstone Cares” week each year, where we unite as a company to give back to our local community. This year, employees from COCM’s home office and their family members, spent a day at Oliver Elementary School in Birmingham, Alabama helping with a variety of projects. Traffic flow “Lion Paws” were painted on…

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Student Loans – Navigating the Debt

January 12, 2017

This article from the MINTLife Blog has some simple but important recommendations and excellent resources for anyone who has student loan debt.  Shortly after graduating from New York University with a Master’s degree, Melanie Lockert turned to food stamps, as she worked her way out of $81,000 in student loans.  “There were a lot of…

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Podcast

Podcast | How I Got Into Student Housing – Gretchen Smutney

January 5, 2017

In this “How I Got Into Student Housing” series, we’ve been talking to housing professionals to understand how they got into this field.  In every episode of the series, you’ll hear how a mentor and/or a situation guided each person into something they love. In this episode we interview COCM’s director of Towson Place Apartments, a…

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