ResLife
Mishandles Housing
To
the Editors:
The
College owns nine off-campus houses, which are located on Woodland
Street, Union Street, and South Professor Street. Because current
members of six of these houses decided to stay for the 2002-2003
school year, only three of the houses were available. The process
of leasing the remaining three properties was run by ResLife. After
being high on the waitlist since the first day of school, our group
was able to choose a College-owned off-campus house at the end of
March. We had been told throughout the seven-month-long process
that the rent was currently $360 a month (with utilities) and expected
to go up slightly. As we were about to sign the lease, the College
suddenly raised the rent to $515 a month (the new price of a super-single).
We were shocked and outraged, but ResLife justified this 42 percent
increase as the result of newly discovered financial
difficulties. After many e-mails to and talks with ResLife and Peter
Goldsmith, ResLife decided to please the returning renters, who
make up the majority of next years tenants. The rent for returning
renters was lowered to the price of a double, which is consistent
to what they pay this year. For new renters, however, ResLife only
lowered rent to the price of a single, or roughly $460 for the coming
year. Despite the concessions made by ResLife, $460 a month is a
large increase over last years rate and far more than our
group can afford. Thus we were left to scramble to find another
off-campus house in April, when there are few houses left to choose
from.
ResLife handled this process very poorly. Had they told us sooner,
even just by the beginning of spring semester, we would have had
more options left. We trusted ResLife to be fair in their off-campus
housing process, but they failed to act in such a manner. We have
been told by Kim LaFond, the Director of ResLife, that next year
college owned off-campus houses will become part of the regular
lottery system, but beware of equating off-campus with
cheaper prices. There is reason to believe that the College will
raise the rent even further next year, and do not expect much warning.
Their budget, not their relationship with students, is their bottom
line.
Alice
Cheong
College junior
Megan Lowery
College junior
Laura Belous
College sophomore
Inessa Spencer
College junior
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