As spring quarter marks the beginning of the end of the school year, all returning students must begin to prepare for the one ahead, which includes deciding where to live. While finding decent, affordable housing is never easy, it has been made especially difficult for this year’s rising sophomores.
The class of 2021 is the first class with a two-year live on requirement, meaning students must live on campus for at least two years in either a residential building or Greek housing. Students may apply for exemptions, however, in the case of “medical or psychological conditions, financial reasons, family, age or other situations,” according to the Residential Services website.
The Residential Services website touts this initiative as a net-positive for students, one that will “support social and academic transitions.” Yet, in reality, it seems to be nothing more than another financial burden to students already facing sky-high tuition costs that increase with every passing year.
The first year of implementing any new housing program naturally faces challenges, especially this year, which includes figuring out how to accommodate all first- and second-year students that must live in the various residential buildings. As a student body, we cannot expect the process to be error-free, but the myriad of issues that rising sophomores have faced are unacceptable.
First, Residential Services did not make clear the options that would be available, with no publicized list of the different halls and types of rooms that second-year students could choose from. Students were told mere days before they had to make a decision that squatting — the policy that allowed students to reserve their current room for the upcoming year — would no longer be an option for students living in models other than residential colleges.
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Additionally, Residential Services eliminated a majority of considerably desirable options for rising sophomores – namely all of the double suites in 560 Lincoln (the most-recently built dorm) were all reserved for incoming freshman. This contradicts the basic principles of seniority that should be afforded to students who likely paid their dues in less desirable buildings, such as Bobb-McCulloch and Sargent Halls, both of which are slated to be taken down on the Housing Master Plan.
If students wish to live in newer, more desirable buildings like 560 Lincoln and Kemper Hall, the only options available to them were a limited supply of several different styles of single suites. Students have to pay the extra approximately $2,000 more a year compared to double rooms if they want these rooms.
This can put students in a very difficult position if they want to live with their friends in these suites but simply can’t shell out the extra $2,000 next year to do so, thus exasperating already strongly present socio-economic divisions among students at Northwestern.
All of this, of course, is assuming that a student or someone in their roommate group was randomly blessed with a high enough priority number to get one of these elusive suites, which are in extremely high demand. The prices differences approximated above are just that, approximations, as the room rates for 2018-2019 have yet to be released. The rates will likely not be released until June when the board votes on them, according to a Residential Services employee, but students can expect a 3 to 5 percent price increase in the coming year. It is completely unfair to ask students to enter a contract without knowing how much that said contract will cost them.
Lastly, the gender-open housing options for undergraduate students for the upcoming school year are in Kemper Hall, 560 Lincoln and Foster-Walker (PLEX), with the only room styles in these buildings available to non-incoming freshmen being singles. This means that if gender non-conforming students or anyone else who only feels comfortable living in gender open housing want to live in these buildings, they will be forced to pay the extra $2,000 a year. This does not seem like a fair situation for these already marginalized students.
This system is new, and growing pains are understandable, but it seems as if the university should have taken further strides to properly prepare for the large number of rising sophomores that are required to live on campus next year and eliminate what seem to be avoidable problems. Hopefully, Northwestern truly has the best interests of its students in mind and will make the necessary changes to improve this process in years to come.