About 80 landlords met with the Ohio University Office of Off-Campus Living on Wednesday to discuss its current projects, including an online database of available off-campus housing for students.
The office, located in Room 204 in Baker University Center, is a new resource this year for students living or moving off campus.
Just as there's a transition from going from high school to on-campus
there's a transition from going from on-campus to off-campus said Jim Hintz, vice president for student affairs. We're here to facilitate that. The office held the meeting twice for landlords, hoping to get the greatest turnout, to establish a relationship with them and inform them of its various projects. Those include plans for a resource fair next fall providing off-campus living information, various programs meant to educate students on their rights and responsibilities as Athens residents and an online database of off-campus housing.
The Web site will be up and running by late next week at http://www.ohiou.edu/off-campus, Hintz said.
Students expressed a concern for having a kind of central place for finding housing said Hintz, who said he struggled to give advice to students seeking an easy way to educate themselves on non-dorm possibilities.
Hintz worked with brainwebs.net, a company that specializes in similar databases for universities across the country, to address the issue at OU. On the Web site, landlords will have to pay a fee to post rental openings.
It kind of works like a newspaper ad
Hintz said. You're only going to advertise those that are available. Hintz said although working through another company comes at a cost to property managers, he saw it as the best possible solution to students' desire for rental information.
We believe it's competitive with other ways to do advertising
Hintz said for landlords. It would have been very costly and labor intensive with resources we don't have to not use a middle man. Roxanne Tutman, assistant manager of Athens Apartments on North McKinley Avenue, said there was no concern expressed in the first meeting over the site's fee.
I think it would be good. It's a one-stop shopping for the students
and it will open it up to more people
she said.
Hintz said the office's first priority was to support OU students. The Web site, which will help students find subleasers, roommates, available rental properties and other information as needed, will help achieve that.
The fees paid by landlords will cover the costs of the site. The office's yearly budget of $73,000, said OU spokesman Jack Jeffery, pays for the salaries of Hintz, a graduate assistant and the other programs the office runs.
This database is just a small piece of the pie
Hintz said in reference to all the responsibilities of the office.
The meeting was the office's first real connection to Athens property managers, and Hintz was happy with the outcome.
... We're new
and we're just trying to get out there and communicate with this segment of people who we haven't before. I think just the fact that they showed up proves it successful
he said.
