Updates to CWRU housing

Grace Johnson News Editor

Starting a new semester can be exciting, especially with the prospect of new housi ng. While construction on Southside ensures that the area is never devoid of noise, the progress is evident. Once just a large hole in the ground, the area has received some very exciting attention, which includes the construction of a foundation and walls.

For those of you unaware or unfamiliar with this topic, housing and residence life have begun the construction of two new residence halls in the South Residential Village at Case Western Reserve University. They will be located at the intersection of Adelbert and Murray Hill Road. These halls will house around 600 new students, beginning in the fall of 2024, when construction is expected to be complete. This project was created to accommodate the growing number of CWRU students, as President Eric Kaler has vowed to raise the admissions numbers to generate more funding for research projects.

the university housing options, they are not a traditional residence hall that houses Resident Assistants (RA) and a Residential Community Director (RCD). Rather, they are part of a “shift towards creating a fourth experience track, sort of a 3A under [Upperclass Community Experience] that provides one foot on campus and one off where there is more autonomy,” says Fabian.

This housing option will instead have a Graduate Residential Director (GRD) that acts similarly to an RA and RCD combination. They will be there to help residents with some issues and provide guidance as needed—however, there is also a full-time property manager who acts as a traditional leasing agent by providing keys and answering questions about the building. In addition, there is also a live-in maintenance staff worker who will attend to building repairs as needed.

New apartments are coming to Hessler Road soon and are garnering some controversy.

Hessler is a historic street, developed in the early 20th century as a quiet and quaint community, isolated from the hustle and bustle of the rest of University Circle. With its wood and brick-laid pavement and counterculture aesthetic, Hessler has been one of Cleveland’s hidden treasures. The Hessler Street Fair, which has been held since 1969, is often seen as the embodiment of the strong sense of community of the little neighborhood. As such, the residents of Hessler have fought for decades to preserve the street’s unique aura from new developments and student residents.

This trend continued when a proposal for building a new apartment complex on Hessler was unveiled in February 2021. Developers put forward a plan to build a new four-story, 23-unit apartment building, targeting young professionals and students with rents between $1,500-$1,600 per month. The proposal drew immediate backlash from residents of Hessler, some of whom put together a campaign to “preserve and protect” their street. In a statement, the coalition spoke out on how the developers had put forward the project with “no respect for the fragile historic district, its cultural heritage, and the community that stewarded it for decades,” and pushed University Circle Incorporated to rethink the philosophy of the proposed building and take feedback from community members. Further revisions from the developers in April 2021 saw the apartment building being scaled back to a 12-unit building with a design more reminiscent of other houses on Hessler. Ward 6 City Council member Blaine Griffin also became personally involved in securing funds to preserve the brick and wood pavement.

Residents still were unhappy with the style of the proposed building and the idea of a dense apartment being introduced to their haven. The developers returned with a third proposal to scale even further down to a six-unit building, with three bedrooms in each unit to enable the family-style living that the Hessler residents preferred. The developers presented the plan to the Cleveland Landmarks Commission in late 2022 and received approval in January 2023, despite reservations, opening the way for construction to start this summer.

Many Hessler residents remain in opposition to the new building, however, and have expressed concerns about the impact construction will have on their living conditions and parking, especially considering the street is already very narrow and space for vehicles limited. In addition, they are requesting repairs to occur on the old-style pavement, the development of a new parking plan and a complete stormwater management study. It is unclear if any style of new development would be supported by residents as the coalition has expressed that the lot should instead be retained as green space.

Residents have long railed against the slow shift from the street’s community-based historic character to one increasingly dominated by students from Case Western Reserve University; that will likely continue, especially with the new construction. While there has been a long back and forth about the character of Hessler, the street’s future now seems clear.

“Within the last five years we’ve seen over 1,800 apartments and condos built in University Circle, with 1,000 more in development. That staggering growth is unprecedented,” said Laura Cyrocki, a Hessler resident. “The addition of 18 more bedrooms on an already dense and fragile street at the expense of the character of Cleveland’s first historic district only serves to create more economic benefit for the developer and the property owner.”

This semester has ushered in even more housing options, including the acquisition of the newly-built Monroe Apartments, located in Little Italy behind the University Circle Police Department headquarters. These apartments are available to students as part of their university housing options starting this semester for upperclass students.

When asked why these apartments were leased by the university, Associate Director of Residence Life Devin Fabian stated, “It arose out of the need of additional housing to ensure that upperclass students for next year have a larger mass of housing to avoid things like last spring from happening again. People overwhelmingly want to live on campus and this provides almost 100 additional beds to meet that need.” With a growing population of CWRU students comes a growing need for more housing options, which is where the Monroe Apartments came into play.

While these apartments are part of

However, Fabian also made it clear that this is a three-semester contract, beginning in spring 2023 and extending to the following two semesters. From there, beginning in the fall of 2024, the residential experience in various communities will probably change, which means that the Monroe apartments will likely no longer be necessary.

The Monroe Apartments serve as an important transition residence option as the campus population grows and the need for housing follows suit— especially after the frustration felt by community members and parents last spring, when upperclass housing was no longer guaranteed. The housing and residence life offices are working to ensure that this does not happen again and that the needs of students are being met.

This is just the beginning of a housing saga that will continue on for the next several years. Stay tuned to read updates on housing options for the future, and, if you’re lucky, you may get to live in the newly built Monroe Apartments—I know I want to.

Wrestling goes 6-2 to start 2023

Puneet Bansal Sports Editor

The Case Western Reserve University wrestling team had a scintillating start to the new year and don’t appear to be slowing down. After splitting the dual meet on Jan. 7, the Spartans swept another dual meet on Jan. 10 and went 3-1 at the Claude Sharer Duals on Jan. 14.

CWRU traveled to Ada, Ohio on Jan. 7 and defeated Manchester University 30-18. All first-years, E.J. Alizio won 10-7 by decision in the 125 pounds weight class, Art Martinez won his first career win 18-1 in 6:03 at 141 pounds and Thomas Wagner won 11-2 by major decision at 149 pounds. First-years Jacob Gregg and Marty Landes won by forfeit at 133 and 157 pounds, respectively. After racking up these wins, CWRU had losses at 165, 174 and 184 pounds to bring the score to 24-12. Fourth-year Stephen Andryc pinned his opponent in 5:19 to claim the win at 197 pounds and a final score of 30-18.

Despite this strong showing, the Spartans were swept 44-0 by Ohio Northern, which includes some of the best DIII wrestlers in the country. The closest matches were Martinez’s 6-0 loss by decision and first-year Calvin Rowan’s 4-0 loss at 149 pounds to the 10th best wrestler in the US.

“Ohio Northern is a tough matchup in terms of our two team makeups,” said Head Coach Josh Malave in an interview with the CWRU Athletic Department. “We’re very young, they’re a veteran team. So it was a good experience for us to see that level and ultimately we want to be one of the best teams in the country ... We had some really good moments within the duel, some of our guys battled really hard, we’re really proud of them.”

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