Jefferson and Bromley Hall residents have put up with construction since the beginning of the school year, but if these students had attended Ohio State University, they might have been compensated for this disturbance.
OSU offers monetary compensation for students who are affected by construction or other campus disturbances for sometimes hundreds of dollars, said Dave Isaacs, OSU communications and media relations manager for the office of Student Life.
“It’s not the sort of thing that one applies for … We look at what happened, why it happened, and its impact on students,” Isaacs said. “It’s our attempt to make a situation right.”
Funding for OSU’s program, which started in 2009, comes from the office of Student Life’s housing budget.
“(It’s a) ‘this has been a real headache, let’s do something good for these people’ type of thing,” Isaacs said. “Students and parents were appreciative.”
It is impossible to quantify how much OSU pays on average each year because it varies, Isaacs added.
“(Having that program at Ohio University) would be awesome,” said Adriane Stairhime, a freshman living in Jefferson Hall, which has undergone construction in recent months.
OU does not currently offer reimbursements for students who are affected by campus construction, but students who are dissatisfied can apply for a room change, said Peter Trentacoste, OU’s executive director of Residential Housing.
“The busiest time for the majority of construction projects … in the residence halls occurs during the summer,” Trentacoste said. “That time frame is the busiest for construction because there are less students on campus.”
Kent State University, the University of Akron and Bowling Green State University do not offer reimbursement programs because the majority of on-campus construction is done over the summer.
Officials at Miami University did not return a request for comment.
“We care about all of our students and want to ensure that they are having a great experience at Ohio University,” Trentacoste said.
dd195710@ohiou.edu
