Student Wants To Live Off Campus?
By Nicholas Grainger
Residence Director
Although it is only the 6th week of school many sophomore students are already thinking about their junior year. And they major question many are actively engaged in is: Where am I going to live?
It might seem a little strange and a little early to be focused so intently on housing for 10 months in the future but with the end of the two year residence requirement within sight many students are anxiously awaiting the day they move into an off-campus house. I wanted to take a minute and share with you as parents how you can help your students as they prepare to make this move.
First, I think one of the most important messages you can give your students is “Don’t Panic.” The search off-campus housing can be stressful and seems to start earlier and earlier every year. Some of this stress is created by the students as they rush around trying to find houses and groups of friends to live with. This is intensified by area landlords, who push students to put down deposits and sign leases as soon as possible. Landlords are responding to the market forces with so many students moving off-campus, but they are also manipulating the market forces to their own advantage. Many area landlords are great, but they aren’t in the landlord business for their student’s best interest but for their own bottom line. Although your daughter or son may insist that “everyone else already has a house” and that “if they don’t get a house today there won’t be any left” this is not the case. As the Residence Director who primarily works with off-campus housing I know that even as late as this past June and July there were houses within a 5 minute walk of campus that were still available to rent for this school year. There is not one student that I know of who has been forced to live in a car because they couldn’t find off-campus housing. There is a space for everyone. Bottom line for your student: Don’t panic. Your son or daughter will find a place to live. It may not be their first plan or even their second but everyone has a place to live at the end of the process.
Second, encourage your student to be careful and review all their options. Have him consider an apartment (which has a higher per person cost but tends to have more privacy, be quitter and easier to study in, and tends to have few conduct related incidents) over a house. Have her consider a Gonzaga owned off-campus theme house or Gonzaga owned off-campus apartment as opposed to going with a private landlord. Have your student consider Gonzaga on-campus apartments like the Corkery apartments or the Kennedy Apartments. Encourage you students to consider who their roommates are going to be. If they pick their housemates now will they still want to live with them in a year or 18 months? Have your student make up a budget to evaluate how much a house really costs (not just rent, but utilities, rental insurance, deposits, fees, etc) and how these costs will be split among the housemates. Bottom line for your student: Be careful and don’t rush in to anything right this second, but take the time necessary to fully investigate all the options. Then make an informed choice that’s right for you.
Lastly, help your student understand their lease. The lease is a legally binding document and landlords hold students to every clause. Have your student read the lease. Then read it again. Make sure that it’s not just reading the lease but that they understand what all the clauses mean and how the landlord will hold them accountable to it. If you feel comfortable review the lease with your student before they sign it. Or have your student visit the GU Law School’s Legal Clinic. I or any of the other Residence Directors on Campus would be happy to meet with your student and help them understand their lease. Bottom line for your student: it is imperative that you read and understand you whole lease before you sign it. And if you’ve already signed it it’s even more important to read and understand your lease because it spells out your legal obligations to the landlord.
Lastly, it’s important that you know what Gonzaga, particularly Housing and Residence Life but also the Division of Student Life and the Student Wellness Resource Center (SWRC), is doing to educate and support your student as they prepare to move off campus. Although I primarily work with juniors and seniors in university owned off-campus properties I (and the other RD’s) work with the RA’s in sophomore communities on educating students about life off-campus and how to find a house, how to read a lease, and how to uphold the universities behavioral expectations (the Student Community Standards and Gonzaga policies apply regardless of where a student lives). I welcome students to stop by my office and fill my inbox with their questions and concerns about living off-campus. In the spring, SWRC hosts the Off-Campus Challenge and the Good Neighbor Workshop. The Office of Housing and Residence Life is committed to working with students until they have a place to live and is an excellent place to stop by for rental listings. The Office of Student Life publishes and Off-Campus Living Guide (http://www.gonzaga.edu/Student-Life/Off-Campus-Living/Docs-and-Pics/OffCampusGuide1.pdf) and is another place to refer your student who has questions or concerns.
Although the move off-campus doesn’t happen until the end of the sophomore year, the mental move is already occurring. You student is under pressure to figure out next year’s housing. That pressure is placed there by the student, intensified by his or her peers, and taken advantage of by area landlords trying to fill their rentals. You can help your student by refusing to give in to the panic and the pressure, helping your student work through the choices and consequences of each choice, and ensuring that your student understands his or her lease terms and conditions. Know that Gonzaga is in the residence halls educating sophomores, and works with students all the way through until they have a place to call home, even if it’s not with us.
Nicholas Grainger is Residence Director for the Corkery Apartments, Chardin Hall, Gonzaga owned off-campus apartments, and Gonzaga owned off-campus theme houses.