Ohio University’s Graduate Student Senate is concerned about where graduate students and families living at Wolfe Street Apartments will kick up their feet in wake of the complex’s demolition later this year.
The plans for the apartment complex were included in the concerns GSS expressed Monday night regarding graduate-student housing.
Christine Sheets, executive director of Residential Housing, and Josh Bodnar, assistant director of sales, promotion and communication, presented their 10-year housing master plan at the GSS meeting. The plan measures results of a survey assessing housing preferences that was emailed to undergraduate students and their parents.
“They did not extend this to the graduate students,” said Ed Gaither, a senior studying specialized studies who lives at the Wolfe Street Apartments.
The 10-year plan includes the renovation of the East and South greens dorms and an increase in the number of suite-style dorms.
These plans will help to accommodate, grow and sustain the undergraduate population, but for now, graduate students’ housing improvements are underrepresented in the plans.
“We have to deal with the buildings that exist at hand,” Sheets said.
One of the first steps in the capital improvement and housing master plans is the demolition of the Wolfe Street Apartments. The complex is currently home to 72 tenants, including graduate students and families, who be displaced June 15 because of the demolition.
Residents were alerted about the demolition this month, allowing them just five months to find new housing that will meet their needs, Gaither said.
“They told us after they were already locked in,” he said.
The complex offered a convenient location in relation to campus, low rent and included utilities, Gaither said.
“There are a lot of grad students with young kids, without a car, and (they) don’t want to live in an undergraduate student housing sort of environment,” said Eden Almasude, a graduate student studying African Studies.
Residential Housing recently added a section to its website directing students toward off-campus housing options. The office sought information from local landlords about their properties and is including that information on the site.
But graduate students still believe more needs to be done.
GSS members said Residential Housing needs to explore additional options to help those that will be displaced by the demolition. Students suggested allocating specific floors of existing dorms for graduate students and the construction of new housing at The Ridges.
“The decisions made by the committees for the housing master plan have been really irresponsible and have not considered graduate students, international students and students with families,” Almasude said.
hm156809@ohiou.edu
