Inside the off-campus scramble

Students react to the decrease in off-campus permission and share how it affects their fall housing plans

By Jillian Parks Social Media Manager

In the aftermath of a decreased number of available off-campus spots, the sophomore class of ’25 describes the process as annoying, frustrating, and unnecessary. It seems every student who wanted permission has a story to share.

With only 56 of the 127 men who applied and 118 of the 148 women who applied being given off-campus permission this year, students have been racing to figure out their housing for next year. The situation appears particularly difficult for rising juniors. Only 17 of those male spots were rising juniors and 74 of the female spots were rising juniors.

“It’s been really strange because there’s not a lot of official stuff published, so you’re left guessing,” sophomore Owen Gerth said. “It’s a lot of hearsay, so it’s really just been a lot of guesswork, crossing our fingers, and waiting.”

A group of eight men, some independent students and some from Greek houses, signed a lease during the third week of school for Burt House, located on Manning Street.

“Most of us had a lot of credits already, so we assumed that there would be about 75 to 80% of the group who would get off campus,” sophomore Kirsten Lopez said. “When off-campus permission came out, it screwed a lot of us over because we planned on living in the house, and we didn’t really have an alternative.”

According to the men, the problem does not lie with the lease but the fact that half of them received permission while the other half did not.

“We’re having to scramble to find guys that we can potentially fill our lease with, but we don’t know if the guys we originally were willing to live with are going to still get off campus or if we have to fill their slots,” sophomore Jack Walker said.

Walker said that the process has caused a lot of uncertainty.

“I don’t know if my rent is gonna go up because we’re not going to be able to fill the house or if we’re going to have too many people,” Walker said.“Some of my friends are going to get screwed over because of the uncertainty that’s flying around.”

Even if a student gets off-campus permission, it doesn’t mean that their problems are solved.

“I ended up getting it but had to change plans completely because the group that I was going to go off with, nobody else got off-campus. And so I’ll be living with a bunch of juniors next year,” sophomore Rachel

Burt House is one of the most popular off-campus houses in a prime location on Manning Street, well within walking distance of campus.

JACK COTE | COLLEGIAN

Houts said. “I think it did work out in the end, but only through sheer luck because I just happened to have taken enough credits.”

Students are given two weeks to decline or accept their off-campus permission. Houts said that having to make housing arrangements that quickly was the main source of stress for her and others new to the renting process.

“It’s just annoying because for most people going off-campus is their first experience with a rental that’s in their name,” Houts said. “Having the time crunch once you get the permission is really stressful because then you have to figure everything out about renting that you didn’t know in two weeks. Or if you signed a lease ahead of time, then you’re just kind of trapped.”

Other students, like sophomore Sarah Gregory, are going on WHIP in the fall and decided to be proactive, making housing plans for the spring semester.

“They always make that joke, ‘You make plans and God laughs,’ and I had this whole plan figured out in there,” Gregory said. “I’m a big planner, and it just seems like everything that I’ve done to try to plan everything has fallen through. And so now it’s kind of just figuring out what would be a good place for me to live.”

Inevitably, the process has left some students behind to figure out new plans with what seems to be a general consensus of confusion and lack of direction.

“I would say the best way to describe it is it’s just been a consistent rumor mill,” Gregory said. “I have found out through friends and through other people. It always felt like I never knew what was fully going on.”

Gregory said the lack of communication can also affect student’s finances.

“For a lot of kids who do pay for their own housing, they need to plan if they’re going to be paying X amount on campus or X amount off campus,” Gregory said.

“And everything just kind of seemed to not be finalized or to be communicated until the last possible moment.”

To aid some of this confusion, the administration is implementing a new program, StarRez, which it hopes to use to help close the information gap and manage expectations among other things.

“We realized that there has been sort of a change in culture of just even expectations of when you should be able to sign a lease,” Dean of Women Rebekah Dell said. “We see that there is an information gap. Starting from the very first page when you log on to StarRez, it talks about housing, about the college’s policies, and how it’s a live-in campus where you have to request off campus permission.”

For some students, communication will not fix the social or financial concerns that they want addressed.

“I’ve worked three jobs to try to pay for school, so not getting off campus was really challenging,” sophomore Kenda Showalter said. “And so it’s just disappointing not only financially but socially. I don’t know where I’m going to live because I’m the only one out of my circle that’s in that situation.”