By Tyler Manoukian, Melissa Gately, and Remy Schwartz
Drastic changes have been made by the division of Student Affairs and Campus Life (SACL) due to the high demand for on campus housing.
Vice Chancellor and Executive Director of Student Affairs and Campus Life, Jean Kim stated “We have known for a couple years that we would be hitting a crunch for undergraduate housing.”
Student Affairs has become a hot topic in recent Daily Collegian headlines and causing a rift between the undergraduate and graduate student body and the University.
“This is a pressing issue because the SACL decisions are having influential effects on the student body,” according to Katie Landeck, editor of The Daily Collegian.
Student Affairs has decided to raise the rent and move all families out of the Lincoln Apartments to house the surplus of undergraduates who wish live on campus.
The Lincoln Apartments, located on the south side of campus, right behind southwest has been known to occupy graduate students and some faculty workers. There has are no reports of undergraduates living in the Lincoln Apartments at the time of this writing.
But the Graduate Student Senate (GSS) believes the impending SACL changes violate the Wellman Document.
According to GSS Treasurer, Robin Anderson, the Wellman Document is defined as, “ A governance document, stating that governing bodies on campus that are recognized by the university have the right to have their input heard on any policies changes that directly affect them.”
On April 4, the Graduate Student Senate wrote a formal letter to Chancellor Robert Holub, demanding him to suspend the new policy so both governing bodies could re-evaluate the new policy and asked for a response by April 13.
There was no response by April 19 when the GSS held meeting and eventually voted 11-2 for no confidence in Vice Chancellor Kim and Executive Director of Residential Life Edward Hull.
Reportedly neither Kim nor Hull have responded but Anderson believes the GSS has made their motives clear to Jean Kim and Edward Hull, who are very much aware of the situation.
“It’s an ongoing thing, a trend towards the erosion of on-campus housing for graduate students” says Matthew Ferrari, Family Issues Advocate for the Graduate Employee Organization (GEO).
Ferrari says the changes allows the University to increase its revenue by 100 percent because it will now be able to charge $750 per person in each apartment in Lincoln. Under the new guidelines for the Lincoln residential area, tenants, which will include undergraduate and graduate students, must adhere to a 24-hour quiet policy.
Occupancy for the Lincoln apartments will increase to 160 students in 2013, and again to 182 in 2014. The housing shift effectively removes all graduate family housing options from the Lincoln apartments and funnels all families into the North Village apartments next year and beyond.
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