Date of Award

January 2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Geography & Geographic Information Science

First Advisor

Enru Wang

Abstract

With national trends in higher education experiencing dwindling enrollments and personal economies increasingly strained, the University of North Dakota (UND) has grown to become the biggest public higher education institution in North Dakota, having effectively bounced back from the COVID-19 pandemic drop in enrollment. Grand Forks, North Dakota, is the host of UND and home to a student body of over 14,000 as of 2023 fall semester. This study focuses on; to what extent is studentification taking place in Grand Forks, ND; and how the observed housing- and demographic patterns in Grand Forks align with, or diverge from, the broader theoretical conceptualization of studentification. First, a spatial analysis, applying spatial autocorrelation methods Global Moran’s I and Local Moran’s I in ArcGIS Pro is conducted. The analysis reveals an increase in clustering across the study period, concentrating in the near-campus neighborhoods. Second, Multiple Linear Regression and Geographically Weighted Regression identify the driving factors to student housing choices based on the effects of studentification identified in the literature, identifying affordability, rental availability, and newer housing stock as deciding factors to student clustering. The results contribute to furthering the conceptualization of studentification and student geographies in nonmetropolitan college towns in the United States.

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