As students wake up in the morning, they are usually met with natural rays of sunlight shining down on them, signaling the start of the day. Well, at least that’s how students should be starting their mornings. Unfortunately, many people lose that experience because of the prevalence of windowless bedrooms in West Campus.
Many UT students wake up in the morning to four dark walls with no natural light in sight. Thousands of rooms in Austin have been built over the years by high-rise developers to include bedrooms without windows and no natural light. These units, though generally cheaper options, can have adverse effects on students’ mental and physical health. Developers need to stop marketing these units as bedrooms.
Currently, psychology professor Samuel Gosling is conducting research that focuses on the psychology of physical space and architecture.
“(The harms of windowless units) speak to the much broader issue of architecture being a discipline (for) building places for humans,” Gosling said. “There’s almost no systematic understanding of humans that architects have to undertake. You would think if architects and builders are building places for humans, that they might be learning all kinds of things about the species that they are building for.”
Windowless rooms can affect students’ circadian rhythm and negatively impact their health. Natural light can also potentially prevent students from developing mental health disorders such as anxiety, depression, stress and sleep disorders.
The city’s legislature creating new regulations for high-rise developers to stop including units with windowless bedrooms is not enough because so many students are currently living in these units.
Corporate communications junior Lauren Wells lives in a five-unit apartment at Yugo Austin Rio and is one of two roommates with a windowless bedroom.
“There’s all these high rises (at UT), (so) it’s a norm that most or some of your rooms won’t have windows,” Wells said. “I definitely think it’s just a ploy to get more people to move in. Obviously, rent’s more expensive here than other colleges, so they’re making more money per unit.”
In April 2024, Austin City Council voted to ban windowless bedrooms; however, high-rise apartments such as Villas on Rio, Yugo Austin Waterloo, Ion Austin and others are still advertising luxury living even though some of their units contain bedrooms without windows, and still charge well over $1,000 per month.
The student living industry in Austin is already expensive as is, but the creation of multimillion-dollar high rises in West Campus pressures students to take what they can get and potentially sacrifice their mental health to afford housing.
“It’s easy to just get hung up in your room with no window. It’s a dark, pretty much cave, if you don’t have lighting in there,” Wells said.
High-rise developers need to stop marketing these units as multi-bedroom living situations when they lack the proper facilities to be considered one. It is unethical and can create a long term negative impact for students.
Petry is a government and journalism junior from Rowlett, Texas.
