UPDATE: Vice President of Student Development Kent Porterfield said on Friday that a mistake was made when calculating next year’s rates for Grand Forest apartments. This, Porterfield said, explains the steep jump in Grand Forest pricing initially listed by the Department of Housing and Residence Life and reported below.
New rates, which Porterfield said would reflect significantly smaller increases, will be released on Res. Life’s website by Monday.
“I don’t know how we overlooked it … It was more complicated this year because we were trying to create fewer rates,” Porterfield said. “I regret that we made the mistake but I’m grateful to The UNews reporter [Kat Patke] for pointing it out to us so that we could get it corrected.”
Look for more information, including more from Porterfield and Res. Life Director Alvin Sturdivant, in the next edition of The University News.
Depending on where you’re living next year, housing may cost more or less than previously expected.
Housing and Residence Life has done an overhaul on housing rates for the 2009-2010 school year, resulting in lower prices in some cases and some hefty increases in other cases. According to Res. Life Director Alvin Sturdivant, the new rates are more “streamlined” than their predecessors; there were formerly 89 different rates, but under the new system, there are 39.
“[The old rates weren’t] an accurate reflection of the spaces we were providing,” said Sturdivant. “We were also charging for things that probably don’t need to be charged for,” such as the extra charge for balconies or patios in apartments.
When increases were necessary, he said Res. Life tried to keep them under $500 per semester, excluding board.
In one particular instance, though, the increases were beyond the $500 limit; some Grand Forest residents will see rates increase more than $1,000 per semester, which according to Sturdivant reflects the renovations that will take place over the summer.
Next year’s Grand Forest residents will have improved landscaping, patio fences, sliding doors and kitchen cabinets. This will place Grand Forest in between the Village and Marchetti Towers in pricing, which reflects the “higher degree of privacy offered to students in this setting,” Sturdivant wrote later in an e-mail to The University News.
In other cases, rates dropped; for example, a two-person, one-bedroom apartment in Marchetti West will cost $186 less next year.
Student Government Association Residential Affairs Committee Chair Kate Sliney said that she was unaware of such a large increase in the case of Grand Forest.
The rates were presented to her committee Feb. 2, according to Sturdivant. Sliney said that after an explanation by Sturdivant and reviewing it with her committee, nothing had jumped out at her as something particularly “alarming.”
“We’re not trying to hide anything here,” she said. “Res. Affairs can choose to make a presentation [to SGA when we find it necessary], but for this particular area, we got the numbers and didn’t see anything that would require a presentation immediately.”
Sliney said that at the time “the committee felt that there was nothing that was egregious spending.”
Both Marchetti East and Marchetti West will remain open during Christmas Break, making both buildings’ rates identical. There will also be separate rates for “deluxe” residence hall rooms that have private bathrooms.
Students living in apartments will no longer be able to use the all-flex meal plan; instead, they will be allowed to add up to 600 flex dollars to their meal plans through their student accounts. Additions beyond $600 will need to be made in cash.
All residence hall rates include a meal plan of the student’s choice, while apartments include the $200 commuter/apartment plan. Sturdivant said residence hall meal plans would be about $1,900, but The University News was unable to confirm the exact amount before press time.
Freshman Sarah Reinking said she found it “sketchy” that Res. Life didn’t notify SLU students when they posted the revamped rates.
“It might turn people off,” she said. “[Grand Forest is] really expensive, but maybe the renovations will make it worth it.”
The final rates were presented to the Residence Hall Association on Feb. 9.
Students who find the new rates unacceptable can still drop out of their contract and get a portion of their housing deposit back before their housing appointment time.
The information was made available on SLU’s website on Feb. 20, seven days before 2009-2010 on-campus housing applications were due. Besides SLU President Lawrence Biondi’s December message to the school that said housing “will . average a 2 percent increase,” there was no other formal announcement to the SLU community about new housing rates. -Additional reporting done by Adam Tamburin.
