Spring Break
Housing chances are a mixed bag for students
Our Opinion
Issue date: 2/4/09 Section: Commentary
The elimination of the housing lottery ought to be cause for unmitigated celebration - to those who perhaps would have been kicked off campus otherwise, perhaps it is. But as with any policy action taken in this economic climate, the alterations to Hilltop and Charter Oak Apartments have their serious drawbacks, as well.
For those unaware, the two-bedroom apartments in Hilltop and Charter Oak Apartments are being converted so as to house four residents - two per bedroom; the single-room, single-person efficiencies in Hilltop will become doubles.
Like a luxury brand which lowers its prices and thus the quality of its products, the Apartments are now within the reach of more students than ever before - with the catch that much of that which made the Apartments "brand" appealing in the first place is now gone. The Apartments heralded an opprotunity for students to experience living conditions somewhat like what they might face in the "real world," with their own bedrooms, bathrooms to clean and food to cook; the latter two qualities remain (though the duties will be halved, clearly) but the private bedrooms are almost a thing of the past. Only the 4-person apartments will retain private bedrooms. The conversion of the doubles to quadruples and the efficiencies to doubles renders the old doubles more akin to suites than apartments, and the efficiencies, with their single rooms and conditional lack of privacy, are now essentially large dormitories albeit with private bathrooms, more like Shippee C rooms than apartments.
Of course, the old efficiencies were perhaps preposterously large given the current UConn housing crunch, and their fearsome price - currently pegged at $5,388 per semester - raised the specter of their being vacant Hilltop efficiencies due to a simple lack of demand while students who desired to live on-campus were being forced off of it. Nonetheless, the idea of moving to the distant Hilltop Apartments only to sleep in a twin-size bed with another in the same room seems a perhaps dubious prospect. The two-person apartments in both Charter Oak and Hilltop, meanwhile, for all their spaciousness in terms of their living rooms, kitchenettes and bathrooms, always possessed particularly tiny bedrooms; placing two people into these spaces will make the propsect of spending any duration of consciousness in the bedrooms highly unappetizing, and it is difficult to imagine how two desks might be wedged into the current area.
All of the apartment residences affected by the changes will experience a correlated drop in price, which should prove a boon to hard-pressed students when the nigh-inevitable tuition increase rolls around. Nonetheless, many of the students who arrive for the first time in the Apartments next semester will doubtless be left wondering what all the fuss was about.
For those unaware, the two-bedroom apartments in Hilltop and Charter Oak Apartments are being converted so as to house four residents - two per bedroom; the single-room, single-person efficiencies in Hilltop will become doubles.
Like a luxury brand which lowers its prices and thus the quality of its products, the Apartments are now within the reach of more students than ever before - with the catch that much of that which made the Apartments "brand" appealing in the first place is now gone. The Apartments heralded an opprotunity for students to experience living conditions somewhat like what they might face in the "real world," with their own bedrooms, bathrooms to clean and food to cook; the latter two qualities remain (though the duties will be halved, clearly) but the private bedrooms are almost a thing of the past. Only the 4-person apartments will retain private bedrooms. The conversion of the doubles to quadruples and the efficiencies to doubles renders the old doubles more akin to suites than apartments, and the efficiencies, with their single rooms and conditional lack of privacy, are now essentially large dormitories albeit with private bathrooms, more like Shippee C rooms than apartments.
Of course, the old efficiencies were perhaps preposterously large given the current UConn housing crunch, and their fearsome price - currently pegged at $5,388 per semester - raised the specter of their being vacant Hilltop efficiencies due to a simple lack of demand while students who desired to live on-campus were being forced off of it. Nonetheless, the idea of moving to the distant Hilltop Apartments only to sleep in a twin-size bed with another in the same room seems a perhaps dubious prospect. The two-person apartments in both Charter Oak and Hilltop, meanwhile, for all their spaciousness in terms of their living rooms, kitchenettes and bathrooms, always possessed particularly tiny bedrooms; placing two people into these spaces will make the propsect of spending any duration of consciousness in the bedrooms highly unappetizing, and it is difficult to imagine how two desks might be wedged into the current area.
All of the apartment residences affected by the changes will experience a correlated drop in price, which should prove a boon to hard-pressed students when the nigh-inevitable tuition increase rolls around. Nonetheless, many of the students who arrive for the first time in the Apartments next semester will doubtless be left wondering what all the fuss was about.
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