The Problem
Last week, the T&C reported that Otterbein recently changed the lease format for school-owned apartments and is reverting to an old policy that was in place up until two years ago.
Because of the recent enforcement of this policy that now requires all students living within an apartment to be on the same length of lease, students are basically forced to either pay more to stay with their same group of housemates or find a new group of roommates.
Students living in Otterbein’s Commons apartments have the option to either lease an apartment for the academic term or for the summer term plus the academic term.
In the past, students on mixed lease terms were able to live together. In other words, it was possible this past year for a student who only had a lease for the academic term to live with another student who had a lease for the academic term plus the summer term.
According to Administrative Assistant of Residence Life Laura Farley, this change in policy could affect almost 180 students who occupy rooms in the Commons apartments.
As it became time for students to plan for their housing arrangements for the 2013-2014 school year, Student Affairs announced that students who were already living in the apartments could renew their leases, but roommates could not be on mixed lease terms.
Farley said this policy change was due to a desire to make it easier for students to understand the apartment selection process.
Our Stance
If this change was made for the sake of making things easier, it certainly hasn’t done anything but make the end of the school year more chaotic for students.
Students who were living with mixed lease agreements that had originally planned to simply renew their leases, either had to scramble to come up with the additional funds to pay for added summer leases or had to find new roommates.
To make things more complicated, this change was announced in early March, less than two months before housing agreements were due.
Had this rule about mixed leases been introduced at the beginning of the school year, there would have been more time to find convenient accommodations.
The issue of having to pay almost an extra $800 for a summer lease in addition to an academic lease is also an important factor to consider for those of us planning our summer agenda.
A student who was offered an out-of-state opportunity during the summer that was on a tight budget would be in a difficult position if they were forced to choose between an exciting career opportunity or renewing their lease agreement.
This new policy poses more of a hindrance to summer career exploration than it does a convenience factor.
The end of the school year already presents stressful decision making for students. Worrying about who our roommates are or where we will live only adds greater burden to our load.
Student Affairs does make special accommodations for students who are studying abroad, allowing them to only pay for the time that they spend residing in the apartment.
While it is good that this lease configuration doesn’t create additional problems for students who hope to study abroad, it doesn’t seem fair that the same privilege isn’t granted to those students with comparable circumstances who aren’t traveling abroad.
Our Solutions
It would be ideal if roommates with mixed lease agreements who currently live in the Commons apartments could be “grandfathered” into the old system and the old rules for the 2013-2014 year.
Since this has been possible for the past two years, how much of an inconvenience would it be to allow it for just one more year for only the group of students who wish to renew their existing leases? If absolutely necessary, the new prohibition of mixed lease agreements should only apply to those who would be new residents to the Commons apartments.
This way, at least those students who were already preparing for new living arrangements could plan accordingly and those who were already comfortably established in the Commons could remain undisturbed.
If the intent of the new policy was to keep things easy to understand for students, it would make sense to not require returning residents to adapt to a new system.
Another possible remedy to this situation would be to allow for students to sublease their apartments over the summer.
For students who do not need summer leases, but are signing leases that include the summer period simply so that they can keep their same roommates and apartment, it would be useful if they could find someone else to rent their room for those few months to defer the extra cost.
The bottom line is that this restrictive policy, intended to make things easier for students, actually only complicates matters for students looking to lease school-owned apartments.
