The earthquake hit and the remains have settled. Now the scramble for the junior class to save themselves has just begun.
The earthquake hit Quinnipiac’s campus this past October, when the class of 2002 learned that starting next year, absolutely no seniors would be allowed to live on campus. This information is finally sinking in, and now the large junior class finds itself aimlessly searching for places to live.
The Office of Residential Life is trying to be supportive when it comes to the over-crowding living situation and the new need for seniors to live off campus. Gina Grubb, Assistant Director of Residential Life, has led the way in helping the upcoming senior class find off campus housing options.
The Office of Residential Life held a housing fair on Feb. 13, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., in Alumni Hall. In attendance were 12 apartment complexes, real estate agencies and rental places from Hamden, North, East, and West Haven and New Haven.
The representatives from various apartment complexes were there to show off their floor plans of their apartments.
Each of the apartment complexes offers a variety of room sizes and different accommodations that may be included in the price of rent. Make sure that is something future renters should into before they sign the lease, Grubb said.
While this process seems to be painful and impossible, it will be easier for the classes that will follow the class of 2002. The University has added a full-time staff member to Residential Life. Under this new staff member’s duties will be to assist in developing University/off-campus housing relationships with the places in the Hamden area.
Grubb suggested that students do their homework before they sign the lease. “Students should go and visit the place more than once. One time during the day to see what the apartment is like; and then again at night to get a taste of what the night life is like and security,” Grubb said. After all, this will the place you will be living at for a whole year.
Grubb also recommended going through the checklist of things to check in an apartment before putting your name on the dotted line. Among the things on the checklist are observing the water pressure in the apartment.
The mere thought has students irate, and understandably so. When next year’s graduating class entered this institution, known then as Quinnipiac College, they were guaranteed four years of on-campus housing.
It is a frustrating experience for the juniors and it will only get worse as May approaches and urgency for a place to live increases.
Meghan Hick, junior Mass Communications major, is unhappy with the situation and the idea of a housing fair. “They haven’t helped us so far, what makes us believe that they will now,” she said.
The Quinnipiac web site offers a list of off-campus housing that is updated on a weekly basis. More lists can be obtained at the Office of Residential Life and also in the special section on housing in this week’s issue.