On-campus housing demolition leaves students reconsidering living plans
A surprising email came to manyWalnut Lane and Grace Street residents on Thursday: Their futurehomes are being demolished.
Kevin Meaney, the associate directorof the Office of Residence Life, stated in the email that JMU hasdecided to rebuild these buildings for 2012-13.
“The Walnut Lane Flats and GraceStreet Apartments will be demolished in the next few months afterschool is out in order to make room for construction of newhousing,” Meaney said.
Exactly when this is happening isstill unknown.
Many students had already signed anon-campus housing contract for these apartments nextyear.
Management gave two options to thosewho planned on doing so.
The first is a full release fromtheir on-campus housing contract. This gives students all theirmoney back, including the deposit, and the capability to sign a leaseanywhere else.
The second is to keep their contractand choose a traditional-style residence hall room, and they willbe given a lottery number.
Lottery numbers, randomly generatedfor all on-campus contract holders, are used during an on-line roomselection and determine when one selects a room.
Students must make their selectionby Feb. 15.
“I know that this is disappointingnews, and I am sorry that we must force you to reassess your plansfor next year,” Meaney stated in the email sent out tostudents.
The news has upset some of thestudents.
“The Office of Residence Lifepromised that we would be able to renew our lease for the followingyear, and we would be able to keep our apartment for twoconsecutive years,” stated Ashley Grisham, a junior theater and danceand SMAD double major. Grisham is also a photographer for TheBreeze.
Grisham signed her contract singleapartment contract in October for 2012-2013 and stated the locationwas suited for upperclassmen because of the apartment lifestyle andits proximity to campus.
“This is more than disappointingnews or merely inconvenient,” Grisham said.
“After buying hundreds of dollarsworth of furniture for an unfurnished apartment, there is no way Ican go back to living in a dorm, not to mention the extreme lack ofupperclassman housing.”
Others who didn’tsign a two-year contract are also surprised, but considerthemselves lucky.
Spenser Parsons, a sophomore historymajor and current resident of Walnut Lane, didn’t plan on livingthere his junior year, but is still surprised by theemail.
“I’m sure the students arepanicked,” Parsons said. “I’m glad I didn’t pick to live hereagain, so I don’t have to deal with this ruckus.”
Meaney stated that only 18 out of the90-plus current residents had signed a contract for a secondyear.
Nevertheless, Grisham hasn’t foundan off-campus housing development she wants to live in.
She’s also concerned about the pricefor on-campus housing. This year, room rent was $2,092 per semesterfor most dorms.
“I’ve started searching for otherhousing, and to find anything similar nearby will cost me thousandsof dollars more next year,” Grisham said. “This is not an addedexpense I expected for my senior year.”
There was no intentional delay insharing this information, Meaney said. The students were notifiedwithin 36 hours after the decision was shared with hisoffice.
Jennifer Weyman, a sophomore musiceducation major, wanted to stay in her Walnut Lane apartment,however now she plans to live in Urban Exchange, which she stated isstill cheaper than living on campus.
“Honestly, my roommate and I werereally sad about it, and we didn’t feel that it was ethical,”Weyman said. “But JMU isn’t doing anything legally wrong since theyare still allowing us to keep our housing contract and live oncampus.”
Related News:
- Hi-tech housing of the future is revealed
- US housing market gains traction
- Housing starts add to recovery signs
- 4/23/2012 – theGrio and CNBC Market Update
- Increase in building permits signals housing market improvement
- 3/26/2012 – theGrio and CNBC Market Update
- Better Homes for Britain: Call for Evidence
- A Place to Call Home: RIBA Exhibition on History of UK Housing
- Borough council split over plans for future homes
- Housing starts down, permits up
Details :
Submited at Friday, February 3rd, 2012 at 12:00 am on Uncategorized by jessica
Comment RSS 2.0 - leave a comment - trackback