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There are 26 comments on What Students Want in Housing

  1. I wonder why we’re raising tuition when we’re spending 1.5 million dollars on “extreme makeovers”!

    Obviously the money to pay the contractors that do these “extreme makeovers” comes from somewhere. Like gee, I don’t know- our tuition?

  2. A fancy new dorm (on top of the TWO we already have) isn’t going to keep me on campus. We need CHEAPER options, not new buildings that only bump up prices!

  3. Can’t you just be direct? “The less expensive off-campus housing the more…” That’s one roundabout way that kids not using dorms because it cost too much. Pretty much anybody, except for the few who wants more autonomy, wants to stay on campus, if they can afford it. The renovations make it even more desirable, but without money, unreachable. Lower the cost or freeze the cost for a few years and you’ll many more stick around.

  4. Uptight policies about noise and alcohol (even for those of the legal drinking age) make on campus housing much less attractive. I have an apartment in StuVi 2 and love it (and will be living here again next year), but one of the best things about being off campus is being free from overly strict rules imposed by housing. Off campus, if you have a complaint from a neighbor you may get in trouble, but RAs are told that if they can hear noise outside the door it is too loud. The policy isn’t enforced very strictly in StuVi 2 (because the RAs aren’t jerks) but in Warren Towers, for example, RAs came around essentially hunting for noise and it felt like some of them enjoyed writing people up.

    Relax the rules, and more people will come back on campus. A 6 pack of beer or a liter of liquor? Really? Those two are not equitable. How about a liter and a case. Like almost every other school.

    Why does BU insist on doing things differently!? (and wrong)

  5. I understand that there’s enough physical room between StuVi1 and StuVi2 to build StuVi3 but I’m against it being placed there. For starters, it would ruin the spectacular view of many of the rooms on the east side of StuVi2 who look out onto the Charles River. Secondly, the influx of new residents living on west campus would definitely overcrowd West dining hall. What do you guys think?

  6. As a rising junior, I am moving off campus next year. My choice was not any of those listed above, although I am getting sick of dealing with security and the security check-in process.

    All of Boston University’s new plans for dorming and renovation takes place in the western most part of campus — an area in which I have absolutely NO interested in. I have been situated in Myles Standish for the past two years and have completely fell in love with “east campus”.

    Even though StuVi2 has its many reasons to live there, it has never even crossed my mind. So the renovation of West Campus, along with a brand new building in between StuVi1 and StuVi2 is not appealing whatsoever.

    I would have LOVED to stay on-campus next year, but my options are so limited that I did not want to take a chance receiving a low lottery number and being stuck in a location that I did not want.

    Why are there no new buildings or renovations in South or east campus? If there had been an option of a nice, renovated apartment-style dorm in South campus, I may have stayed on-campus. But there are very few of these dorms, and NONE OF THEM are renovated (I feel like I step back into the 70s when I take a peak into a South campus apartment).

    This is my suggestion to BU — why not try expanding the area in which new housing and renovations are taking place? South and East campus need just as much attention, especially to students like me.

    Best,
    Moving-To-Off-Campus-South

  7. I’ve known several grad students who have "shown up in the city with no idea where they’re going to be living,” and I don’t understand how BU is just now figuring that out. I don’t think the reason graduate students aren’t looking into BU housing options is because they all have spouses, kids, etc. It’s because graduate housing is WAY too expensive (more so than undergraduate housing in many cases) for grad students to afford unless they have a trust fund or are fully funded (and a fully funded grad student is rarer than a leprechaun at BU).

    If BU really wants to help its grad students, it will develop better outreach to incoming students. Many need help getting their bearings in a new city, especially BU’s many international grad students. Giving them a list of a few financially untenable housing options is not going to do it.

    I understand helping grad students find affordable apartments in Boston’s cheaper neighborhoods does not make BU money, but it’s the right thing to do.

  8. …and part of this $1.5M per building (before considering the cost of builing StuVi3, of course) will go to the repair of all those leaks featured in yesterday’s article, right? Because water damage might be a more important concern than new furniture.

  9. First off, off campus housing compared to on campus housing is much cheaper and gives students more freedom…Second off, BU denounces the idea of on campus fraternity housing, which is ridiculous. This basically pushes most frats to live in Allston, where trouble arises…BU knows this for sure…

  10. Grad student housing is more than double the price of what I have found off campus, and since I’m not studying a field that is going to be paying big wages after I graduate, I pinch every dollar that I put into school. Sure, it would be nice to live a little bit closer to campus, but not if I’m going to be paying back the rent via loans for 10 extra years. If they want to fill up those rooms and attract grad students, I believe that cost is, by far, the biggest factor to look into.

  11. “But before anything could happen, officials had to address a key question: why aren’t students filling up all available on-campus space?”

    http://www.bu.edu/today/campus-life/2010/03/16/tuition-room-and-board-rise-3-65-percent

    silly question.

    it is cheaper to live in an apartment off-campus than it is to live in StuVi. the best way I can think for BU to bring students back to the dorms is for them not to be so goddamn expensive. and yes, I know, it is more complicated than just “lowering the price will fix all our problems!” because lowering cost of room/board will have its own consequences, etc. but really, it’s inevitable: students who want an apartment will do what’s cheapest, which generally means living off-campus.

    it is what it is.

  12. Its really not a complicated question as to why BU housing isn’t always filled- it costs too much. The people that stay on campus are forced to because of scholarships or because they are studying abroad and think that it is too complicated to move off. The dining food is good, even great by dorm standards but not for $4000. So lets see a private bedroom, sharing a bathroom with one other person, in a renovated building for $850/month (which is still a lot by off campus prices) or $1500/month to be in west campus in a dorm that is super nice but feels like living in a hotel. How to make BU housing better? Build affordable dorms (more ideas like HER house?) and make dining plans optional- thats the reason I left after only sophomore year.

  13. why don’t we renovate the leaking and crumbling buildings we already have as opposed to building even more rooms when we can’t fill the ones there are?

  14. I agree with you completely. I cannot even come close to affording the residence rates of a stuvi or stuvi2. I am forced to live in cheaper BU housing (but still expensive) which is below second rate. The result is that certain types of people live in these “high-rises” (the rich). And now the university wants to build a stuvi3 for more rich/elites.

  15. No, that’s where you’re wrong. For BU, if something does not make BU money, it’s never the right thing to do. So that is in fact the wrong thing to do.

    Welcome to the ethics of BU.

  16. Also, I don’t understand why my previous comment was censored, since it merely pointed out the relation between outrageous spending on new building projects and the increase of tuition. Apparently something about that is vulgar or inappropriate.

  17. The real issue is that BU dorms are incredibly expensive, and dive apartments in Allston are not. As the years go on and the cost of school builds up more and more, students are going to migrate off campus to save money.

  18. As a funded graduate student, the university knows *exactly* how much I have to spend on housing. If they want me and other grad students to consider living on campus, they should make the housing fees commensurate with the stipend. Why would i spend $1200/month living on campus when I can get a wonderful room for half that in Allston.

    Also, I know this is a stupid place to complain, but all this money going into housing is nice, but what would be really nice is to put some of that money towards hiring new tenure-track faculty. This could increase course offering, decrease class size, and in the long run be much better for the undergrads’ education than swanky dorms.

  19. Student housing is a curse and a blessing.
    Is BU in the bicycle, house renting business or THE education business?
    Focus, focus – focus!

    Students keep the local rents high. Family’s are priced out when 5 kids get together and each pay $500 plus utilities, thought cheep compared to BU rents . . . but a BLESSING for the city or town who experiences no added students to local school classrooms. THUS the lack of enforcement of over housing of students. Which breeds Bed Bug and Roach filled housing and Allstons Party Central and THE college experience.

    IF BU LOWERS it’s rents . . . the private sector will do likewise. Right NoW, BU Housing is way too expensive, as is the private offerings.

  20. It’s the cost. I pay more to share a room with someone I’d never live with and share a bathroom with 20 others, than it costs to live at a nicer apartment a little further from campus. I’m in the cheapest housing option possible, and they are raising the rates for next year. Stop spending money on things no one needs, lower housing rates, and more kids will move back on campus. Can’t be that hard.

  21. Dear Housing,

    If you are not filling up your dorms and apartments, I would suggest you open the empty space to Grad students as a routine offering.. say if you are a rising BU undergrad it should be an offer to those students first since they have already earned it as part of the BU system, then the offer go to Grad students who are entering BU for the first time….AND OFFER THE ROOM, BE IT DORM OR APARTMENT, AT THE SAME RATE THE UNDERGRAD PAYS. Lets face it…. you HAVE EMPTY ROOMS…FILL THEM! Let’s not be greedy. The Grad students don’t get much help anyway monitarily…STEP UP TO THE PLATE…it’s a WIN/WIN situation. BU helps the Grad Student, the Grad Student fills the void of the empty space…and the lost revenue if the space remained unfilled.

    To me, this should be a given practice. It’s a no brainer!

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