Caryn Wille and her roommates were willing to put up with the mice in their apartment. They didn’t flinch when they moved into an apartment filthy with grime. One thing, though, almost got them to finally take action. “There was one point when our back locks were getting so stuck we couldn’t get out,” the Weinberg senior says. “Or at one point (we couldn’t get) in.”
Finding a decent place to live can seem like the scourge of a Northwestern student’s existence. No one wants to live on campus for more than two years – and even if students did want to stay on campus, NU doesn’t have enough housing to accommodate the masses. Once you decide to live off campus, the obstacles are endless. Finding roommates. Considering everyone’s financial situations. Searching for apartments, scheduling around everyone’s over-programmed schedules in the tiresome process. (Maybe) finding an apartment or house. Signing a lease – often without being entirely sure what you’re signing, let alone who you’re signing with. Moving in and, most likely, facing a whole new set of problems. And eventually, finding yourself longing for the days of dining halls and busted games of Kings in your Allison double.THE DESPERATE SEARCH
Finding off-campus housing and coping with the problems that come with renting leave a lot of students desperately seeking help, whether in the form of learning from older friends’ cautionary off-campus tales, or via a frantic call to one’s parents during a housing-related meltdown. But one place students shouldn’t expect to find help is from the University. Unlike many schools, NU does not have an off-campus housing office. The reason, according to school officials, is none too surprising: cold, hard cash.
“It has to do with constraints on resources,” NU Vice President for Student Affairs William Banis says. “In terms of balancing all support services and programs, (an off-campus housing office) hasn’t been in the mix, historically.”
Many students say they wish it would be integrated into the University’s student resources. “I think (an off campus housing office) would be amazing for all of us,” Medill junior Kayla Bensing says. “It’s like our first dabble into the real world of trying to find housing for ourselves without help from our parents.”
Bensing and her potential roommate, Medill junior Kaitlyn Thompson, both live in their sorority house. They are looking for a sublet for this winter (Thompson says it’s “impossible”), and for a permanent place to live during their senior year. ” Both applied to live in University housing this winter, as they assumed it was unlikely they would find anything off campus.
As for the prospect of off-campus housing help from Northwestern, Thompson is on the same page as her friend and potential future roommate. “It’s ridiculous that they don’t have (an off-campus housing office),” Thompson says. A housing resource as such would be an asset for the scores of NU students who don’t stay on campus for all 12 quarters due to stints studying abroad, embarking on Journalism Residencies and other programs whisking away students from Evanston.
Though NU does not have a service for off-campus housing, Associated Student Government does. Last year, ASG launched a Web site to evaluate off-campus housing. “(We’re) trying to give more information when transferring on-campus living to off-campus housing,” he says. “I think the first year was really successful.” McGee, a Communication senior, says the University should play a role in helping with off-campus resources, adding that dealing with the issue “shouldn’t all fall on students.”
A few makeshift resources have emerged for students looking to live off NU’s property, mostly in the form of listservs. NU’s Study Abroad Office compiles a roundup of sublet listings from students its employees periodically send out, and the Panhellenic Association (PHA) distributes a similar mass e-mail.
But it’s neither of these organization’s responsibilities to find students housing. And though Banis says it is acceptable for students to put out information like this, it wouldn’t be appropriate for Northwestern to take part in such a program.
“We have landlords off campus who provide a variety of living conditions,” Banis says. “I’m not sure that as an institution we want to be evaluating different landlords and different properties.” Though there’s currently no plan to create an office for off-campus housing anytime soon, Banis says he has authorized a position - assisting Interim Dean of Students Burgie Howard – which would offer support to off-campus students. “My intention is that that person will develop an increasing amount of resources with our students off campus.”THE ON-CAMPUS PROBLEM
With so many problems off campus, from securing a suitable abode to dealing with the ensuing drama, it seems any sane upperclassmen would want to stay in the (relative) security of an NU dorm or residential college. Apparently, this is not the case. Currently, about 4,000 undergraduates live in residence halls not including Greek houses, says Mark D’Arienzo, associate director of University Housing. The Undergraduate Housing Web site lists another 900 in Greek houses on campus. The remaining 2,500, the site says, live off campus or commute.
For those students who do live in campus or Greek housing, the reason is generally convenience-motivated. Jillian Foley chose to be president of Alpha Chi Omega despite a strings-attached obligation to live in the house for a third year. She says she might have liked to live off campus, but running for president was higher on her priority list. “I have the rest of my life to live in an apartment and deal with furniture and gas bills,” the Weinberg senior says. “So I might as well take the everything’s-done-for-me route for as long as I can.” Most students, though, crave something different by the time they’ve spent three years on campus. “I kind of need a change,” Thompson says. “I’m not opposed to living in university housing, but I’d prefer to live off campus.”
In addition to students craving the freedoms off-campus dwelling affords, Banis says the types of housing options available to upperclassmen could affect the housing exodus of sophomore and junior students into Evanston for housing the following year. “There’s another factor, and that is much of our housing is very traditional,” Banis says. “We have a lot of doubles, some singles. You have rooms off of a main hallway. What we don’t have for upperclassmen yet are apartment complexes.”
Many Northwestern peer institutions offer such housing, which allows students to live in a more private and autonomous atmosphere than the cinderblock-enveloped chaos of Bobb, but without the off-campus hassle of landlords, realtors and utilities. Though NU will not be getting apartment-style living facilities in the immediate future, Banis says building them is part of a larger plan. “Longer term, my sense is that the mix of housing will increase and change,” Banis says. “Not in the next five years, but in the next 10 to 15 years.” As of now, the closest thing to apartments University housing offers are the Kemper Hall suites, which house 177 students.
Some schools manage to keep students situated on campus for the long haul without providing apartments or other specialty housing options. The University of Notre Dame, located in South Bend, Indiana, has 80 percent of undergraduates living in dorms each year. There are 28 residence halls, all of them single-sex. Each house is led by a rector – an adult hired by the university to lead the hall and guide students.
All students at Notre Dame are assigned randomly to a dorm their first year, says Grant Woodman, the institution’s Associate Director of the Office of Residential Life and Housing. “During that time they establish such a community that they end up wanting to stay there.” Notre Dame is a Catholic school, and its resulting faith-based community factors into the tight-knit ambiance. Bu
t Woodman says that’s not the only reason upperclassmen often refrain from venturing into South Bend proper in pursuit of housing. “They want to be connected to campus,” Woodman says. THE OFF-CAMPUS PAINS
No matter what cautions are taken, NU students living off campus inevitably have to contend with problems involving their landlords and the actual properties. For most accustomed to living with parents or in controlled and well-tended on-campus environs, it’s a first-time endeavor and often, a fight.
Francesca Ferrero, a McCormick junior, says before she left her off-campus apartment for winter break last year, she and her roommates turned their heat to a low temperature. Over break, they received word the heat had been turned completely off, causing their pipes to explode – submerging the apartment in water. Though Ferrero assured her landlord the heat had been turned only to low, it made no difference.
“He didn’t believe us and he made us pay for repairs for the whole thing,” Ferrero says. The bill for the repairs was originally set at $15,000, which would have been split among the six people living in the house. Due to an insurance claim, Ferrero and her roommates only had to pay $1,000 total to deal with the damage. The flooding fracas didn’t stop there, though.
“My room was damaged,” Ferrero says. “I had to throw out over a thousand dollars’ worth of clothing.” But a suddenly depleted wardrobe was just the tip of the iceberg: Ferrero’s room was completely unusable for a month while the repairs were made – yet she still had to pay rent for it. To add insult to injury, the water was not turned back on for some time. “I had to go pee and shower in my friends’ and neighbors’ houses,” Ferrero says.
It’s those situations – and everyone has heard a horror story if not experienced one – that leaves students feeling helpless. There is, however, something that can be done. Ald. Delores Holmes (5th), of the Evanston City Council, has worked in the past with students living off campus. Ald. Holmes has helped students learn how to play nice with neighbors and effectively deal with any problems that arise. Students, she says, should bring issues to the forefront if they feel necessary. “(Students) need to go to the city Human Relations Commission,” Holmes says. “If there are ordinances that are being violated, if the students are being taken advantage of… they need to let people know.”
Liz Kinsey didn’t deal with busted pipes, water damage or running across the street to use a bathroom. But she dealt with an another frustrating and costly situation – bills that often stated incorrect rent dues. The Weinberg senior and her roommates would constantly get notices that their rent was late, though they never once missed a deadline. “They’d send us a lot of erroneous bills,” Kinsey says. One time, Kinsey’s landlord told her the bank had only cashed half of a $4,000 check and he needed copy of the original check.
Kinsey and her roommates realized they were being scammed and didn’t comply with their landlord’s request, but many students are at the mercy of their landlords. Even if that’s only 10 months, they can be 10 long, difficult and almost intolerable months.
Following her problems with mice, gaping holes in the walls and being locked into their own apartment, Wille and her roommates didn’t declare war with their landlord, though they suspected action might have been more than warranted. “It kind of comes down to ‘We’re just kids and we’re just stopping through,’ ” she says. “Had we had more information on filing a suit or whatever it is you do, we probably would have done it.”
