Surges in Graduate School enrollment lead to housing shortage and rising rents

Zena Hitz GS walks down paved paths lined with peeling beech trees everyday to get back home. For the last few weeks, the idyllic Princeton lifestyle has been offset by a growing anxiety about housing next year.

Hitz lost her Hibben apartment off Faculty Road, where she lived for four years in this year's room draw. She now faces the difficulty of financing a Nassau Street apartment, which would cost twice what she pays now.

Hitz believes that the University in general provides well for graduate students, but expresses dismay about how it deals with housing.

"The housing issue is a total fiasco," Hitz said. "I don't think the administration thought it out clearly."

Many other graduate students are facing the same problems as Hitz. Whereas undergraduates improve their housing lottery standing by seniority, graduate students are disadvantaged in the draw by their number of years at the University. Preference is given to younger graduate students.

For example, a second-year student would be given priority over a third-year student.

The recent housing conflict confronting upper-year graduate students is complicated. The culprits are not clearly defined, the causes are debatable and the solution is multifaceted.

Originally, the Graduate College was built to house all graduate students. As the graduate population has increased over the years, the University has had to buy local houses, build new apartment complexes and convert old war barracks — planned to be demolished in 1952 — into today's Butler Apartments.

The housing department could not release exact figures of the number of graduate students to be housed by the University for 2002-2003.

All rooms available in the Graduate College, "the Annex" and Lockhart Hall were full before third-, fourthand fifth-year students could draw.

In addition, 22 current second-years were also denied housing in the three buildings.

Traditionally, all firstand second-year students and some third-year students were able to draw into the Graduate College. Nearby Butler, Hibben, Lawrence and Magie apartments were available to upper-year students.

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The recent graduate housing shortage — dubbed "crisis" by most graduate students — largely stems from a recent surge of graduate student enrollment.

Housing officials said the shortage is a concern and the University has responded by planning for shortand long-term solutions.

"I wouldn't call this 'a crisis.' It's a shortage," said Tom Miller, director of housing. "Of course it's a concern because we're building new facilities."

Last year's incoming first-year graduate population exceeded that of the previous year by 5.4 percent. Based on admissions data for the coming year, it is likely that the graduate student body will grow by at least 3 percent.

"These figures should be juxtaposed against the projected growth figures of the Graduate School, which is that the GSB [graduate student body] will grow about one percent annually," said Meredith Safran GS, press secretary of the Graduate School Government.

The University has expanded its student body without increasing the availability of housing at a coinciding rate.

In addition, more graduate students are seeking University housing due to inflation of local housing prices.

Most universities do not guarantee graduate housing but rarely face problems from their students.

Eric Adelizzi GS, GSG corresponding secretary, argues that Princeton is different.

"The situation in Princeton is not easily comparable to peer institutions because inexpensive housing in the area is scarce," Adelizzi said.

The nearest areas of affordable housing are Gainsborough and Lawrenceville, which are 10 miles away, and the only realistic means of transportation to the University is a car.

The housing shortage is a recent phenomenon. Princeton's real estate prices skyrocketed in the summer of 2000, negatively impacting the local options open to graduate students.

In September 2000, for the first time in a decade, the University was unable to meet graduate student housing demand.

"The forces of changing economics in the community certainly contribute to the housing issue," said David Redman, associate dean of the Graduate School.

Comparing graduate to undergraduate housing, Adelizzi emphasized how the administration has planned for Whitman College to be built in order to increase the number of undergraduate students.

"But compare this to graduate students," Adelizzi said. "We have this immediate crisis, and the administration asks, 'Should we do something?' The high enrollment rate had not been planned."

Within the last two years, the administration has striven to improve graduate housing. In 2000, the provost established two committees — one each on short-term and long-term planning — that decided upon turning over undergraduate Lockhart Hall to graduate students.

The conversion from undergraduate to graduate housing is an example of one of several temporary solutions the University has devised to alleviate the problem.

Regular houses on Harrison Street and Eden Way have been converted into temporary "annexes." One or two extra beds have been added to single rooms in the Graduate College.

Committee members also resolved earlier this year to expand Lawrence Apartments by building five new buildings with approximately 350 more beds, which are planned to be fully finished in 2004.

But still, the living space is not enough.

The new buildings will house faculty, post-doctorates and visiting professors as well as graduate students.

"The planned expansion of Lawrence apartments will not be sufficient to answer the problem," said Lior Silberman, GSG parliamentary secretary.

Though constructing new dormitories will undoubtedly loosen the strain on housing resources, the communication between the graduate school admissions office and the housing department may be the root of the problem, graduate students say.

Patricia McArdle, assistant director of housing, said the housing department was unaware of the 5.4-percent increase and its strain on the available housing last year.

Although the housing shortage is a concern for the graduate school admissions office, Redman questioned the role he and his colleagues should play.

"Do I think the housing department should be setting the admissions quota for the admissions office? The answer is no," Redman said. "I think the communication between our two departments is as good as it can get right now."

The housing crisis lies at the forefront of the GSG's agenda and will be discussed in the upcoming Council of Princeton University Community meeting Thursday.

"Our main goal," Safran said, "is to bring this issue to the fore of the University's consciousness and to try to explain the ramifications that the current situation will have for the future, not only of the Graduate School but the University."