Ryan Secard
Contributing Writer
The Dean of Students office recently announced the conclusion of discussions with student leaders on the issue of determining equitable housing prices for incoming first year students.
Although not a formalized group, a self-described “task force” handled discussions on the housing issue between student leaders and the Dean of Students office. The discussion between multiple campus groups on the issue was a result of concerns raised last year about the price of on-campus housing. As a result of these concerns, campus governance groups — including Campus Council (CC) and the Student Government Association (SGA) — began discussing measures to address this issue.
According to Maggie Sestito ’18, the president of SGA, this work began last year between the previous SGA president, Spencer Gilbert ’17, and CC chair, Jack Johanning ’17.
“The previous SGA president and previous CC chair worked on conveying the students perspective to staff and administration on this topic,” Sestito said.
After discussing the issue amongst themselves, both leaders took the issue to Dean of Students Scott Brown. Decisions on the task force and the housing issue were announced to campus leaders at the Board of Trustees’s meeting held in October.
“SGA [was] updated on the general decisions that were made by the task force around the same time that the Trustees were receiving the information just a few weeks ago,” Sestito said.
Some of the questions raised included the equity of pricing, particularly between air-conditioned dorms and dorms without air conditioning.
According to Brown, the presence of air conditioning in some of the dorms meant that “we would have to put an incoming class into differently priced spaces.”
“Our new rates … allow all first-year students to live at the same rates for room,” Brown said.
Brown also explained that the number of different rates has been reduced from nine to four. Instead of being based on the location of the dorm, the new rates are based on the type of room provided.