August 2026 | How AI Is Transforming Student Housing Operations at Sacramento State
Episode: How AI Is Transforming Student Housing Operations at Sacramento State
Publish Date: Aug. 24, 2026
Host: Rhea Kelly, editor in chief, Campus Technology
Guest: Adam Dowrie, associate director of organization and planning, California State University, Sacramento
Episode Overview
In this episode, Rhea Kelly speaks with Adam Dowrie about how AI is affecting student housing operations.
Key Questions & Takeaways
How is AI being used in student housing operations?
Use AI to improve writing and recordkeeping, retrieve student information more quickly, assist with routine actions such as check-ins and package processing, and surface useful student data without navigating multiple screens.
How can AI support housing planning and forecasting?
Use historical data to identify trends, explain outliers, and project future needs such as housing capacity, additional facilities, leased space, or staffing.
How should institutions approach staff adoption of AI tools?
Provide AI as an option, explain what the tools can do and how they can save time, and focus initially on education and helping staff become comfortable using them.
What should AI-enabled efficiency ultimately accomplish?
Reduce time spent on repetitive administrative work so staff can spend more time connecting with students, providing programs and events, and focusing on the student experience.
Where should housing leaders start with AI?
Start with small steps, consult IT when needed, identify repetitive processes, and explore where AI can save time, improve efficiency, and create a better student experience.
Topic Index
00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro
00:30 Adam’s Role at Sac State
01:48 Housing Challenges and Live-On Policy
04:16 AI Tools in Housing Ops
07:40 StarRez and AI Rollout
09:22 Workflow Changes with AI
12:08 AI Analytics and Forecasting
14:06 Change Management and Adoption
16:24 Measuring Success and Student Impact
19:34 Final Advice and Wrap Up
Transcript
Rhea Kelly 00:08
Hello and welcome to the Campus Technology Insider podcast. I'm Rhea Kelly, editor in chief of Campus Technology, and your host. And I'm here with Adam Dowrie, associate director of organization and planning at California State University, Sacramento, to talk about the impact of AI in student housing operations. Adam, welcome to the podcast.
Adam Dowrie 00:28
Thanks. Nice to be here.
Rhea Kelly 00:30
So to start off, just tell us about your background and your role at CSUS.
Adam Dowrie 00:36
Yeah. So I've been at Sacramento State for almost seven years now in June, and my, my background is in higher education, including my master's program. I've typically been on the residential education side of the house for housing, so that's pretty much, you know, the student interactions, the, the student experience, directly, you know, programming with the students, and I've slowly over the last number of years migrated more toward this kind of like IT operations-related focus for my role. And so, my role is the associate director of organization planning here at Sacramento State. I've been in my current role for a little over a year now, but I've got this kind of affinity for technical kind of pieces. I'm not like your full-on IT person, but I understand technology. I'm invested in, and I'm always interested in kind of what's on the cutting edge and what can we do with this new technology that's coming out. And so my role is IT folds under me, but I work heavily in StarRez, which is our housing management platform.
Rhea Kelly 01:48
Yeah, give me some big picture landscape. You know, like what are the biggest challenges that you're facing in student housing today?
Adam Dowrie 01:58
Currently, I think a big piece of it is that there's a lot of folks who are really thinking about whether they want to go into higher education or whether they want to attend a trade school or, you know, leave high school and just go directly into the workforce. And so I think there's a little bit of a changing landscape depending on the institution around who's actually enrolling, how many people are enrolling, and that then impacts housing because obviously our population of who lives with us is those who are enrolled. Something else that's going on specifically with Sacramento State is we're about to roll out a live-on requirement starting this fall of 2026, and with that, students, most students who are out of the area of Sacramento will be required to live on campus or in affiliated housing for their first two years. And so right now we're in the process of rolling that out for, its, you know, an odd roll year this coming fall, and so we are trying to understand kind of how this live-on requirement is going to impact enrollment. How it's going to impact the number of spaces we have for first-year students as well as returning students. And so, you know, we've put together this plan, and we're also kind of also adjusting in real time as we kind of see numbers roll in, as we see the interest, the questions, the things that are popping up, and so those are also a big thing that Sacramento State, in particular, is dealing with as we try to onboard this live-on requirement.
Rhea Kelly 03:30
The expression that comes to mind is working on the plane while you're flying it.
Adam Dowrie 03:35
Yes, yes, I think that's often the case with pretty much any new, you know, initiative or policy. You know, we're not the first campus to have a live-on requirement. There's, there's many, many, many campuses that do. However, each institution's, you know, location, the demographic, enrollment numbers, all of those vary. And so, while we've done our due diligence, we are very much also kind of building as we're, as we're going, and so it's been a, it's been a good learning experience, and things have, have been going well so far. But it's also yeah, there's always curveballs. There's always things that we have to adjust to and, and then account for.
Rhea Kelly 04:16
So how is AI kind of providing some solutions? Like, were there specific problems that you are turning to technology to solve for you?
Adam Dowrie 04:26
One of the things that I think has been maybe most long-standing with what most people kind of associate with AI is kind of like the ChatGPT, the hey, help me write this better. Hey, help me kind of understand kind of what this means, or make this more succinct. And so, one of the tools that we utilize very heavily in our housing program, as well as the CSU, the California State University system, has kind of delved into, is AI. And so, one of the things that has come on board for the CSU system is this kind of ChatGPT that all of the campuses are able to utilize and everyone is able to connect to. Specifically with us as well, though, we've been leveraging StarRez for a few different things. They have a write with AI, so there's various areas of the system that allow us to, you know, include very brief notes, maybe a bullet point or two, and we can ask it to kind of expand on that, and then obviously make adjustments there. We can also work in StarRez to ask questions and get data more efficiently, as opposed to us needing to have all of these clicks to get to this one location in the database that not everyone may be well versed in how to get to. We're able to go to this one area where you can prompt it, and it can provide that data by sifting through all of the information for that student and kind of get us the information we're looking for. And, and they're also building that out in a way where it can also take specific actions if we want to check someone into their housing booking, or check someone out, or issue a package, or maybe they have a visitor visiting with them, and we want to connect that visitor to a person, we're able to ask for, for assistance with the AI being able to do those things. Which is relatively new, and so we're still working to kind of grow that out with our team in terms of how do we use this, how do we leverage this? And then there's other pieces like AI insights, where we're able to get kind of high-level information about a student without us even, again, needing to click, it just provides kind of select data points that may be helpful. You know, the room space, any roommates that they have, when they check in, when they need to check out, etc. So, like some of those kind of high-level pieces are, are really helpful. And then the last thing that I think is really cool that I think a lot of institutions could benefit from is they're working to roll out analytics with an AI component. So looking at historical data to inform decisions that are going to be made down the road. And so there's an AI component there where it will analyze that data and be able to talk about why there may have been a different, you know, data point here as opposed to what we're used to, or projections about what things will look like, based on, again, that historical context that it can go ahead and access. And so, I think StarRez continues to build out some different tools that we're then able to leverage and utilize and help us with our operation, which is, is nice.
Rhea Kelly 07:39
So, chicken and egg question: Is StarRez like a platform that you were using previously, and now you're incorporating new sort of AI features, or was this just an entirely new implementation for you?
Adam Dowrie 07:52
Yeah, we've been with StarRez since 2008 or 2009, and so we've been with them obviously for, we're getting close to two decades, not quite there. But with, with StarRez, we've been growing along with that platform, and so something that we feel really strongly about is to try to reduce the number of systems we're using. That makes things more efficient for our staff. That makes things more familiar for our students. And so whenever possible, we try to incorporate our processes into StarRez, and StarRez continues to innovate and provide different solutions. And so we oftentimes will also sign up to be beta testers for the different solutions, including these AI solutions that I was just sharing with you as well, and so we're always looking for kind of what's coming out. How can we leverage this? How can we utilize this in our operation? And that's been beneficial for us because we get in on things. We get to provide feedback for things that are in that beta testing phase. So we get to help shape kind of what the product is, you know, ultimately going to look like, and it benefits us because we get early access to these kind of cutting edge new features that, again, benefit our staff from an efficiency standpoint, benefit our students and their experience, which is something we're always looking to enhance.
Rhea Kelly 09:22
So walk me through the implementation of these new AI features. Like specifically, what sort of workflows or processes have changed the most, and like what, what exactly are you doing with AI?
Adam Dowrie 09:36
Yeah. So one of the pieces, again, I was mentioning is just even writing with AI. So there's a few different pieces of the system where it allows us, when we're sending e-mails, when we're adding notes, if a staff member is putting an event into StarRez or writing about an interaction they had with a student, they're able to go ahead and leverage AI to ensure that there's no typos, again, be able to expand or maybe take a more professional and appropriate tone in what we're actually logging into our system, or again, what we're sending out via e-mail. And so that helps in terms of the image that we're projecting outwards and to, you know, to our students from e-mails that were being sent, but it also helps to ensure that the data that we're collecting has good integrity, it's free of typos. As you may know, like sometimes things happen and records are subpoenaed and other sorts of things, and so we always want to make sure that we've got good data as well to be able to have on record should we ever need to provide something for, for whatever reason. And again, from a day to day standpoint, it's also helpful for being able to report on things and be able to have high confidence that what we're looking at is well put together, and so that's a piece of it. Again, I was mentioning the, the Ask AI piece of things where we can ask it to, you know, help check in or check out a student or issue a package or give us data that saves us, you know, 30 seconds of clicks, you know, to get, you know, six screens deep into the system. And so it's really nice to be able to have that also because that saves us time and allows us to really focus on things that may be a little bit more important or pressing. If we're doing something with a lot of repetition, or we need to do this for a lot of students, as you can imagine, that time builds up, and we're then able to, again, allocate that time into more meaningful things that we can do for our students. And so we value that kind of efficiency aspect of being able to save time doing things, so that we can better, provide a better experience for our students. Yeah, and so those are a few kind of ways that we see kind of these AI pieces helping us, again, not only save time and, and money, but also provide a better experience for the people that we're here doing this for, our students.
Rhea Kelly 12:06
I think you mentioned data analytics. So, is AI sort of helping surface trends in data then, that can help with decision-making or, you know, planning for the future?
Adam Dowrie 12:17
Yeah. So, this is I think their newest AI tool that they're still in beta testing for. Essentially, it can look at any aspects of the system. So, how many applications we've had year over year for the last, you know, however many records we have in StarRez. So, if we've got data in since 2018, we could be looking at, you know, eight years worth of data, and then it can make projections about okay, in, in, you know, 2027 we're expecting this, in 2028 we would expect this based on historical trends. And it can also, again, utilize that information to potentially inform and draw some conclusions about why data, why we might have outliers, why, you know, with COVID, for example, maybe our numbers are skewed during those, you know, initial COVID years. It can kind of infer that there was something going on, if you will, to help explain why, why data might not be what we would have expected it to be as well. And so this analytics tool I can see being really valuable because it can help inform decisions about how much housing you might anticipate needing a few years down the road. And does that mean you need to build a new residence hall? Does that mean you need to, you know, have a master lease or master agreement with already built property to ensure you've got enough accommodations for the incoming class of students? Do you need to, you know, pause on hiring some positions because you're starting to see a downward trend? So it allows you to forecast a little bit based on, again, historical trends that you have with data within your system, and so I think there's a number of uses that could really make this tool very beneficial for many institutions.
Rhea Kelly 14:05
When you're incorporating AI tools that are, that are really like making efficiencies happen, that tells me that, that it's really changing people's day-to-day work. And sometimes I find there can be like, you know, resistance to change, like people have always done things the way they've done things for many years. Did you encounter any of that kind of reluctance to get on board, or, and how did you deal with it?
Adam Dowrie 14:31
At the moment, the tools within StarRez, in terms of what we're leveraging for our housing operation, are optional for people to use. So no one is being mandated to utilize this tool. We are simply providing it as an option, making sure people understand what it can do to help. And so, as you mentioned, like there are a number of folks that change is like hard, and folks are skeptical of it, and rightfully so in a lot of cases. And so we haven't pushed utilizing AI onto anyone or any of these features onto anyone. They are just simply another tool at their disposal. What I can say as well is leadership, again, at the CSU level, all the way down to our specific institution and leadership within our area of student affairs, like they're encouraging us to leverage and lean into AI for more efficiencies. You know, budgets are tighter, with limited federal and state funding, and so we're really working to always, again, work smarter, more efficiently, so that we can continue to maintain and even enhance kind of the offerings that we're able to provide for students. And so, AI, again, I see as one of those things that is potentially a game changer for allowing us to do so. And so when I'm connecting with people, when I'm sharing information about these tools, I'm trying to obviously share them in a positive light, but help people understand, like by using this, this is kind of what this could mean from an efficiency, from a time standpoint, and, and try to help them understand how this could benefit our overall operation and what we're trying to do. But again, we don't mandate it, and so at this point, folks are, you know, electing to, to utilize these tools or, or not.
Rhea Kelly 16:30
How are you measuring, you know, basically measuring success in your use of these tools? Like, are there specific metrics you're tracking to, and, or goals on how much time saved, or things like that?
Adam Dowrie 16:44
Not yet, in terms of that. But what I would say is, in terms of success, we were talking a little bit earlier about, you know, people being skeptical of this AI technology and change being hard. And so we're all, right now, like we're just trying to get people utilizing it, comfortable with it, seeing how it can benefit them, and ultimately, hopefully, shaving, you know, minutes off of their day, which turns into hours, which turns into something more substantial over time. And so, right now, it's about education and kind of, again, providing these tools and helping people see how they can, you know, benefit from them and therefore how our students can benefit from, from the tools as well. And so that's kind of where we're, we're focused on I guess success if you will. Beyond that like, again, I personally have seen like how it can help with that efficiency aspect, how it can save you 30 seconds, you know, by asking the system a question as opposed to here, to here, to here, to here, and just clicking, you know, from screen to screen. And so I know it's saving time. I can't tell you how much time it's saving depending on the task, but we're headed in a direction where it can be a really big benefit to, to operations within, within a housing program.
Rhea Kelly 18:14
And what does that success look like in terms of the student experience? Like, is it just smoother? Is it that people have more time to deal with their more specific needs? I'm very curious about that student impact.
Adam Dowrie 18:30
Yeah, I mean, ultimately the goal is that people are spending less time doing administrative work. They're able to do that work more efficiently. So ultimately, like that, that is the goal of where we want to go. Because to your, to your question, like we want to enable folks to be able to connect with students more, to put on more programs and events that ultimately benefit them and their academics and their, you know, career trajectory where they want to be. And so that, that's really the focus is how do we spend less time doing these, you know, repetitive, easily predictable tasks, things that take considerable time, but things that could potentially be done in a click of a button because AI can help us or other automations can help us, and be able to spend that time being able to focus with on our students and their experience and do potentially like more meaningful work.
Rhea Kelly 19:33
All right. Any final advice for other student housing management leaders, or especially like mistakes to avoid?
Adam Dowrie 19:42
I mean, the thing that comes to mind is just kind of leaning into things. AI is one of the things that's not going away. If anything, it's getting more prevalent, getting more integrated in, in everything we're doing. And so, start with baby steps. If you're kind of unsure about things, consult, you know, your IT area to understand if you have specific concerns about leveraging, you know, AI with whatever, you know, process or thing you're trying to accomplish. So I would encourage folks to kind of lean into things because that's where we're going, and you typically don't want to be the last person to, to be on the train. You want to, you want to be somewhere hopefully earlier on or in the middle, and be, be versed in kind of the direction that things are headed. And I think it would also be valuable for folks to, to really think about their operation, how much repetition is there, explore how AI could help them and benefit them, save them time, increase efficiency, create a better experience for their students, and find ways to, to leverage AI for that. Assuming, you know, their institution, there's no, there's no, you know, issues with, with doing so. Because I think there's lots of upside to being able to, to work smarter and, you know, not harder, especially in the, the climate that we have today in higher education, where, again, funding sources are in most cases dwindling. And so being able to really work more efficiently, sometimes with less resources, is important. AI can help with that.
Rhea Kelly 21:33
Thank you for joining us. I'm Rhea Kelly, and this was the Campus Technology Insider podcast. You can find us on the major podcast platforms or visit us online at campustechnology.com/podcast. Let us know what you think of this episode and what you'd like to hear in the future. Until next time.