Shortage of apartments displaces graduate students, fueling outrage

With construction to the Hibben and Magie graduate student apartments, located off Faculty Road and overlooking Lake Carnegie, set to begin in June, current graduate students will be unable to return to the apartments for the 2012-13 academic year. The University has placed some of these affected graduate students in the Stanworth apartments, which has in turn displaced faculty and staff who used to live there.

Graduate students received an email from Sarah Major, the Housing Services manager, on May 1, offering help with the search for off-campus accommodations. Zachary Kagan-Guthrie GS, a rising fifth-year graduate student who said he won’t be getting University housing next year, said in an email that the search for off-campus housing presents its own problems for graduate students.

“It’s a serious problem because the rental market in this area is abysmal; virtually all of the properties in Princeton and its immediate vicinity are extremely expensive and difficult to afford on a graduate student stipend,” he said.

Even for those who did receive University housing, there have been complications.

Radha Kumar GS, a resident of Hibben-Magie, explained that because construction on the apartments starts in June, residents must vacate by the end of May. University housing contracts begin on July 1, leaving those who managed to secure University housing without a room for the month of June.

“This means I have to find alternative housing for the month of June and that I have to move twice within a month,” Kumar said in an email.

Sarah Milov GS, currently a residential graduate student in Wilson College, unsuccessfully applied for University housing for next year. Though she said she did not expect to earn a room, it was the actions of the Housing Office in posting the wait list that she found irritating.

“What I found most surprising was that the lottery results were inexplicably delayed for four days,” Milov said.

Graduate students were informed that they would receive results of the housing lottery on April 23, but results weren’t released until April 27, when they were posted on the Housing Office’s website, Milov said.

Graduate Student Government facilities committee chair Tim Brandt GS said in an email that some of the issues with the Housing Office can be explained by a transition of housing directors. The former manager of graduate student housing, Scott Baldwin, hasn’t been replaced.

Associate Director for Student Housing Lisa DePaul did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

But graduate students aren’t the only ones affected by construction to the Hibben-Magie apartments. Faculty and staff living in the Stanworth apartments have had to move out to make room for displaced graduate students.

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A former faculty resident of Stanworth, who was granted anonymity to speak freely about the housing situation, explained that many of the faculty and staff who lived in Stanworth, which is University subsidized housing, must now venture to the private market to find accommodation.

Lecturers and staff had lower priority than faculty in being given other University subsidized housing, the faculty member said, and are now “scrambling” to find off-campus housing. Many of these lower-ranked faculty members and staff are now looking to move out of the Princeton area because of the town’s high housing prices.

Consequently, graduate students are competing against lecturers and staff for nearby housing, according to the faculty member.

At a GSG meeting on Wednesday evening, DePaul fielded questions from GSG members and other graduate students about the housing situation.

DePaul explained that it was “a very challenging year for housing” and added that “there was a very high level of unsuccessful graduate students [who applied for housing].”

She said that for the first time in recent years, a substantial number of third-year graduate students will not receive on-campus housing. The University only guarantees on-campus housing for graduate students in their first and second years, meaning only rising second-year graduate students have been guaranteed housing.

DePaul said she was aware that rent prices in Princeton will increase due to higher demand this year and said that Housing would consider subsidizing students forced to live in private accommodations off campus.

Graduate students at the meeting also asked DePaul how to increase access to University transportation to nearby off-campus locations. They also voiced concerns about perceived ambiguity about which students are currently on the waiting list for housing and transportation.

DePaul explained that a previously posted waiting list did not include all students who were actually on the waiting list and that an updated one would be posted online within a few days.

Brandt said the GSG is looking to revise the off-campus housing website to aid students in finding non-University options.

“The University’s off-campus housing site shows few options, and we expect many students will have a bit of a struggle finding something suitable,” he said. “These options, however, will not help students who need to find housing now,” he added.

Currently about 76 percent of graduate students are housed on campus, but Housing doesn’t intend to let the number drop below 70 percent next year, according to DePaul.

University Spokesperson Martin Mbugua said in an email that 279 graduate students, including some with families, currently live in Hibben-Magie. He also reiterated DePaul’s promise to maintain 70 percent of graduate students in University housing.

The Hibben-Magie construction is part of the University’s Housing Master Plan, launched in 2005 to improve accommodations for faculty, staff and graduate students.

According to the plan, the construction aims to modernize the apartments and create 137 new units, which would house an additional 203 residents. Planners expect the renovation work to be completed in the summer of 2014.

According to a University press release, “The apartments’ layouts have become outdated, and the buildings lack the amenities of contemporary housing communities.”

Among the renovations would be a new parking garage, outdoor common areas including basketball and volleyball courts, a fitness center and a children’s playroom.