Students voiced complaints about housing proposals that would increase rent by 3 percent in most buildings and change housing contracts from being charged monthly to being charged once each term at a housing forum Thursday night. Fewer than five residents came to the first of two hearings meant to receive student response to a housing proposal that would increase rent in most buildings and change the way added roommates are charged monthly rent.
Fewer than five residents come to housing proposal forums Thursday
Students voiced complaints about housing proposals that would increase rent by 3 percent in most buildings and change housing contracts from being charged monthly to being charged once each term at a housing forum Thursday night.
Fewer than five residents came to the first of two hearings meant to receive student response to a housing proposal that would increase rent in most buildings and change the way added roommates are charged monthly rent. Auxiliary Services, the PSU housing manager, created the proposal to present changes in housing to students at housing forums Thursday night and Friday afternoon.
Students said that the way Auxiliary Services is increasing rent seemed “deceptive” and questioned why rent needed to be increased.
John Eckman, chief housing operator, said that rent was increasing to meet inflation, and that any extra money from increased rent prices would go toward housing renovations. Thursday’s meeting was uneventful compared to the same meeting in 2006, when students decried proposed rent increased by 9 percent among all university housing buildings and potential cuts to the Residence Life program.
The proposal also would change all leases to term-by-term or yearlong contracts.
PSU Dining representatives said at Thursday night’s meeting that Victor’s Dining Hall in the Ondine Residence Hall will be open two-and-a-half extra hours each day at the beginning of the next fiscal year.
Students also questioned a second policy in the proposed changes to housing, which would change the way students will be charged to have a roommate live in their apartment.
Mary Cloos, housing services manager, said that each student would now have an individual contract with the university, giving each room on campus a single-tenant rate and a double-tenant rate.
Currently, if an apartment costs $600, $50 is added to the monthly bill for an extra roommate and the total ($650) is split between the roommates. The proposal asks for the roommates to pay one and a half times the total rent, instead of the $650–a total that would be $900 if the rent costs $600.
The second housing forum will be from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. today in the Montgomery Court lounge (Southwest Montgomery and 10th streets).
The Auxiliary Services proposal would increase rent by 3 percent for eight out of 10 Portland State student housing buildings for the 2007-08 fiscal year.
The proposal asks for no increase or decrease in rent in Montgomery Court or in any of the 13 two-bedroom apartments in Portland State-owned housing buildings. The Ondine Residence Hall would see a 5 percent increase in rent.
The First Year Experience program, a program aimed at providing PSU freshmen with events, activities and groups to help them adapt to college life, will see a 1 percent decrease in the yearly cost of living in the Broadway Housing Building and a 7 percent decrease in the Ondine.
The Global Village program, similar to First Year Experience but geared toward students living in Stephen Epler Hall who are interested in sustainability, would see a 6 percent increase in rent if the proposed rates go through as they stand.
Rate increases will not occur until Sept. 15, 2007 for the 2007-08 fiscal year, according to Eckman. Typically, rate increases occur at the turn of each fiscal year on July 1.
