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WEDNESDAY
sept. 16, 2015 high 84°, low 58°
t h e i n de p e n de n t s t u de n t n e w s pa p e r of s y r a c u s e , n e w yor k |
N • Movin’ On
dailyorange.com
P • Point of View
Former SU Vice Chancellor and Provost Eric Spina has been named the next president of the University of Dayton. Page 3
Point of Contact is celebrating its 40th anniversary as an art and cultural center with an exhibit honoring its historic past. Page 9
S • Boxed in
The World Indoor Lacrosse Championships are coming to Syracuse on Friday. The Daily Orange previews some of the top teams. Page 16
Bright & early
Syracuse University students begin search for off-campus housing earlier than ever
By Danny Mantooth copy chief
S
ome students signed leases for the 2016-17 school year before even doing a load of laundry in their current apartments. Students looking for off-campus apartments in advance is not uncommon, but the timing of the housing search this year is even more startling, said Elin Riggs, director of OffCampus and Commuter Services of Syracuse University. “This year is, in my mind, very, very early,” Riggs said. “It’s unusual for the field of off-campus housing.” The timeline has shifted drasti-
The bottom line is that you have to do your homework. Elin Riggs director of off-campus and commuter services
cally from just 10 years ago, when students could afford to wait until there was snow on the ground to start seriously considering where to live. As some students get pushed off-campus due to increases in enrollment at SU, it forces others to address their housing concerns shortly after stepping foot in Syracuse for the new school year. At Emerson College in Boston, where Riggs worked previously, students perused off-campus options in
Syracuse University students have started looking for off-campus apartments early this year, with some students starting their search in August. The Office of Off-Campus and Commuter Services advises students to do research before leasing apartments. logan reidsma photo editor
April, while students at Boston College generally searched in October and November, she said. Never August. Landlords are the other side of this equation, and they have sometimes had to adapt to the hastening
timeline of students looking to rent. Ben Tupper, of Tupper Property Management LLC., said students looking for housing earlier has been a steadily changing process since he graduated from SU in 1992. At that
time, no one even thought of looking until after Winter Break, he said. Six years later, in 1998, “lo and behold,” he said, “everyone was looking in October and November.” Now, in 2015, Tupper said he
received calls as early as June. Part of the reason for this shift, he said, is because the university has seen growth in its enrollment. As the university attempts to provide see early
housing page 8
SU officials discuss phase 1 of student health insurance plan By Katelyn Faubel asst. copy editor
Syracuse University officials are reflecting on the first steps of implementing the new health insurance policy after last week’s deadline for students to waive the new plan passed. In May, SU introduced the online
waiver process for students to submit proof of health insurance that was compliant with the Affordable Care Act. The coverage, which began on Aug. 1, had to be U.S.based and include coverage in the Syracuse area. The students who had to either waive or accept SU’s health insur-
ance plan for the 2015-16 academic year were all incoming, newly enrolled full-time students, including all full-time newly enrolled international students and all graduate students. Now that the waiver deadline has passed, administrators are able to assess how the process might work in the future.
All full-time new and returning students will be subject to the same process for the 2016-17 academic year. If students did not have health insurance, they were charged $1,890 for the new student health insurance plan, provided by the university through Aetna Student Health. The cost is $2,742 for those
who voluntarily purchase the plan when they already have a health insurance plan. Aetna Student Health is a fullservice insurance broker and administrator that provides competitively priced health insurance programs for college and university students, see plan page 6