Loh voices support for more affordable graduate housing

EDITOR'S NOTE: Due to a reporting error, this article incorrectly states university President Wallace Loh's plan to make graduate housing more affordable. It has been corrected in the Dec. 15 article "Univ. officials plan to use grad. fees to make housing more affordable."

Graduate students have gained a strong and powerful ally in their fight for more affordable housing: university President Wallace Loh.

Because the graduate student complexes are not partnered with this university, graduate students face a higher price tag for their housing. Even though these complexes boast discounted prices — lease prices are determined by taking an average of several apartment complex rates in the area and then discounting that price — it is still too much for students to realistically afford, according to Graduate Student Government members.

Loh spoke at the GSG's meeting Friday and said he'd help students create affordable graduate student housing and pointed to the development of East Campus — a 38-acre project to build hotels, apartment complexes and retail stores downtown slated to begin construction in 2013 — as one solution to this long-standing issue.

Although details of the East Campus development plan currently show graduate student housing rates at approximately $1,000 to $1,100 per month, which is comparable to the rates graduate students currently pay, university officials have proposed using profits from undergraduate student housing fees to front the cost of the graduate student complexes.

"We are finding ways to subsidize [housing] because attracting the top graduate students is essential to the future of this university," Loh said.

Graduate students have faced a nearly 10 percent increase in housing costs since the recession, according to GSG Vice President for Financial Affairs Aaron Gerratt.

Rising housing costs, along with the postponed development of East Campus and a long-standing salary freeze for graduate assistants, have made it increasingly difficult for graduate students to find affordable housing in the area.

Members of the GSG have also pointed out that many undergraduate students pay far less for on-campus apartment complexes. South Campus Commons residents pay $767 per month, while graduate students pay monthly rates ranging from $929 to $1,262 at Graduate Hills and Graduate Gardens, two of the most popular graduate student apartment complexes.

But Loh said he'd find ways to help graduate students in their quest for affordable housing — even if doing so calls for some tough decisions.

"We are sticking our necks out in terms of developing a new campus," Loh said at the meeting. "We are absolutely committed to having affordable and high quality graduate housing on this campus, and it will have to be subsidized."

Since the GSG cannot persuade landlords to reduce their prices, graduate students said they are pinning their hopes on the development of East Campus as a solution and said they will continue to pressure administrators to craft ways to subsidize the proposed costs for apartments.

"We are trying to maintain the pressure on the administration for graduate student housing as phase one of the East Campus development," said Barrett Dillow, GSG vice president for legislative affairs. "That's really our best hope for getting better graduate student housing in the College Park area."

Dillow also said options are limited outside of Graduate Hills and Graduate Gardens and cheaper housing comes with its own cost.

"My lease included utilities, and we continued to pay rent, but [our landlord] stopped paying utilities and several times we had our electricity shut off," he said.

"For the housing that is affordable for grad students where we are not paying 80 percent of our stipend, they are really shoddy places to live."

Although many at the meeting alerted Loh to the graduate assistant salary freeze, Loh said pay is outside of his control, and that the state legislature determines these rates.

However, he said the university has prevented salaries from decreasing, which many employees across the nation have had to face.

"The graduate students have been protected from the salary cut of the furlough," said Loh. "Will we fight for salary increases in the legislature? You bet we will."

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