Grad students say housing is isolating and scattered

Even as the opening of the four-year residential colleges fueled hopes for a greater sense of community among undergraduates, some graduate students have voiced concerns that their housing options fail to foster connections with their peers.

Some members of the Graduate Student Government (GSG) said the dispersed nature of graduate housing makes it more difficult for graduate students to interact with each other. Other concerns included the quality and quantity of graduate housing options.

"There are certainly a number of issues and concerns," said GSG press secretary Daniel Raburn, a fifth-year astrophysics graduate student.

But Raburn added that he appreciates the amount of graduate housing the University furnishes. "Princeton is pretty spectacular in that it houses about 75 percent of the [graduate] students," he said. The University also guarantees housing for all first-year graduate students.

"We want to have a lot of housing on campus in order to foster a community," said Lisa Schreyer, an assistant dean for residential life in the graduate school. She added that the University offers a variety of different housing options to accommodate different needs, stages of life and budgets.

Peer institutions such as Harvard, Yale and Stanford offer housing to a smaller percentage their graduate students.

Currently, graduate students can choose to live in the Graduate College dormitories, Butler Apartments, Hibben-Magie Apartments or Lawrence Apartments, all of which are located about a half mile from the center of campus. Students with children can live in any of the apartment complexes, but pets are only allowed in Butler.

The University is planning to tear down the Butler apartments, which graduate students identify as by far the lowest-quality housing option, though it is also the cheapest.

Starting this year, graduate students were also allowed to apply to become Resident Graduate Students (RGSs). About 10 RGSs live in suites in each residential college and are expected to contribute to college life by interacting with and helping undergraduates.

But Jeff Dwoskin, a sixth-year student who chairs the GSG's facility committee, noted that the RGS program will only have an impact on undergraduates and the few selected graduate students. Other steps are needed, he said, to increase both the sense of a graduate student community — which is inherently fragmented — and an overall Princeton community that includes graduate students.

Dwoskin suggested several ways the University could accomplish this goal, including offering two free dining hall meals per week to all graduate students, even those not on a meal plan. This would make it easier for graduate students to interact with undergraduates on campus, he said.

To help graduate students foster connections within their own community, Dwoskin said, graduate housing complexes could be connected better through improvements in the University shuttle system. "This is something small, but not all that trivial, that the University could do to improve interaction of various housing communities," he said.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

When the University builds new graduate housing, he added, he hopes it will consider how the design of a complex affects its community of residents.

Natalie Kostinski, a second-year electrical engineering student who is an RGS in Mathey this year, agreed that graduate students generally lack a sense of community, recalling that she felt more isolated last year when she lived in the Graduate College.

Kostinski added that the graduate community is already fragmented by department, regardless of its members' housing situations, and said that she has enjoyed the increased interaction she has had with graduate students in other departments since becoming an RGS.

Beyond forging a sense of community, GSG officers said they are pursuing a number of more specific goals, including making sure that graduate students have to move as infrequently as possible, that clear housing information is provided to all students and that more childand pet-friendly housing is offered.

But Raburn and Dwoskin agreed that current graduate housing meets its inhabitants' basic needs. "On the whole, I think the quality of the units is reasonable," Raburn said. "It varies, but it's up to health code."

"I think most graduate students find the housing to be acceptable, at the very least," Raburn added. "They aren't unhappy."