The allure of off-campus housing drew 870 students this year to experience the freedom of living in houses and apartments throughout the town of Oberlin. A few of those students got more than they bargained for - broken pipes, leaky roofs and lazy landlords.
The City of Oberlin and Ohio Public Interest Resource Group (Ohio-PIRG) are launching separate campaigns to improve off-campus students' safety and legal status as tenants. As the College begins long-range planning, staff and students have new directions for housing in the future.
Oberlin City Manager Rob DiSpirito is spearheading a campaign to enforce Ohio codes pertaining to rooming houses, which are defined as buildings that house five or more unrelated people. Current codes require free-standing fire escapes, smoke alarms and a sprinkler system. Fire codes are stricter for rooming houses than for family houses. According to DiSpirito, many houses in Oberlin violate this code.
Senior Devon Strolovich lived in a house he believed violated a number of codes. "My house last year should have been condemned," Strolovich explained. "It wasn't keeping gas within the pipes."
In order to enforce codes, Housing Code Administrator Marshall Whitehead has started registering the city's landlords. A meeting was held for landlords in order to explain the changes.
The College may turn over the list of student residences from enrollment cards . "I'm not sure what they want, but we've agreed to help," said Dean of Residential Life and Services Deb McNish.
In past years, Ohio-PIRG compiled a list of landlords, houses, terms of leases and tenant surveys which were made available to students at the Wilder Information Desk. The book was stolen last year.
As part of their tenants' rights initiative, senior Joshua Reed and other members of Ohio-PIRG will try to make a new book this year. Reed said, "We're going to include a list of landlords, the terms of the leases and surveys filled out by students who have lived off-campus." Residential Life and Services also maintains a small list of landlords, along with advice sheets concerning tenants' rights.
A few years ago, Ohio-PIRG printed a handbook advising tenants of their legal rights and obligations. They are considering printing an updated copy. "Students don't know enough about their rights as tenants; every year there are the same problems with landlords," Reed said. "Every year, many students have horror stories of roof leaks, electric problems and water problems that landlords take months to fix."
Senior Emily Dakin moved off-campus this August. She found her new home needed a lot of work. "Our landlord was going to hire a professional cleaning staff to clean it. We found molding dishes and extensive garbage in the house and on the front yard and on the front porch."
Senior Emily Vasily had a frustrating experience last year. "I moved into the house the day we were supposed to and it wasn't clean at all. There were no mattresses in any of the rooms. It was a pit." She found her landlady unwilling to help when she needed the door repaired. "Anyone could have broken in ... It took two months and a letter from my mother before the landlady did anything."
Vasily has had a better experience this year. "We had some water damage and within 15 minutes, a guy came to fix it. Fifteen minutes."
For many, the benefits of living off-campus more than make up for the hassle of maintaining the property. "The nice thing about living off-campus is you get to pick your housemates as opposed to a dorm where you're stuck with all these people you may or may not get along with," fifth-year student Joel Whitaker said.
Strolovich pointed out another appeal of off-campus life. "After living in dorms, I wanted a home."
Another major factor is the affordability of living off-campus. Off-campus rooms including utilities range from around $200 to $350 per month. Living on campus for a month costs from around $350 to $475 and from $245 to $370 in the Oberlin Student Cooperative Association. The price of College housing depends on "a number of factors, some can be as simple as historically what we have charged, increases in costs, and capital improvements," said Vice President for Finance Andrew Evans. According to Evans, this year Oberlin has had the lowest increase in tuition and fees in twenty years. "We need to continue to push that increase down," Evans said.
Dean of Student Life and Services Charlene Cole-Newkirk has offered some specific suggestions to change on-campus housing, chief among these transitional housing. "Transitional housing for college students is new housing that is built by the college that bridges the gap between traditional residence halls and the world after college." She said, "Think of it as off-campus housing that is owned by the College. This housing permits students a measure of autonomy, no requirement to be on the meal plan unless you want to be, etc." Under her plan, the housing would go to seniors and juniors in order of seniority.
According to Cole-Newkirk, many students at St. Mary's College in Maryland, where she has worked, and other colleges prefer these townhouses or garden apartments over other forms of housing. According to Cole-Newkirk, some at Oberlin have warmed to this idea.
McNish likes the notion of transitional housing as one option of many. "The more options the better. Transitional housing is an option, program houses, OSCA, off-campus and dorms are other options."
Some students see the College entering the off-campus scene as possibly a positive move, but not necessary. Many have other priorities and mention of the financial implications makes them ambivalent toward this option.
The College now only owns one student house, Blue House, though it owns around 50 houses which it rents to faculty and staff. Transitional housing would start a new wave of college owned student housing.
"College owned off-campus housing would be nice because it would ensure the quality of off-campus housing. You wouldn't have to deal with slumlords," Vasily said. "However, I think of living off-campus as a transition to once I graduate. It seems ridiculous to have a transition between a transition."
The junior limitation policy is also being debated. Until 1990, all juniors and seniors were granted off-campus status. After that, juniors could only live off-campus by lottery. According to Manager of Housing and Dining Assignments Sandra Hougland, this system "creates a lot of hardships for students" since people are called in the late summer and given the option of living off-campus and people who originally wanted to live together may not be allowed off-campus.
McNish said that what is essential is community. "We should have a lot of options. But right through the center of all of them should be the idea of community. We need to get back to that as a campus and as a town."
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