By summer 2014, the University said it hopes to open a new graduate student residential community south of campus, increasing the area’s capacity by more than 200. The plans for the site, named Hibben-Magie, were presented to the Princeton Township Regional Planning Board last week.
Hibben-Magie, located south of Faculty Road and east of Alexander Street near Lake Carnegie, is currently home to two adjacent eight-story buildings. The structures, built in the 1960s, contain 192 units and can house 512 residents.
Under current plans, approximately 13 buildings with 329 units would replace these structures, with construction beginning in 2012. This would give the site a 715-person capacity for graduate students and their families. The plans also include a parking deck with at least 432 spaces.
Graduate students living in University housing are not currently given on-campus parking passes, so the site will still be served by the University shuttle.
The arrangements are part of the University’s Housing Master Plan, a program established in 2005 to enhance housing programs for faculty, staff and graduate students, and also by the Campus Plan, designed to guide campus development.
“We’re making significant progress toward our goals of better meeting the needs of our graduate students, faculty and staff,” Vice President for Facilities Michael McKay said of the plans in a University press release.
The Housing Master Plan originally called for the Stanworth Apartments to change from faculty and staff housing to chiefly graduate student housing, but the capacity of the proposed Hibben-Magie site will render that unnecessary, the University announcement said.
“It makes economic and programmatic sense to build out the Hibben-Magie site to its full capacity,” said Andrew Kane, director of housing and real estate services. “The opportunity to house more graduate students on the site while still retaining a community feel is very appealing. This allows us to meet our commitment to house 70 percent of eligible graduate students and to maintain Stanworth for faculty and staff.”
The University, however, currently provides housing for more than 70 percent of housing-eligible graduate students, and Graduate Student Government members questioned whether some graduate students currently receiving University housing would be turned away in coming years.
First-year graduate students who finish the housing paperwork on time are guaranteed housing; afterward, housing preference is given to graduate students by year, with the highest preference given to first- and second-year students. Fifth-year graduate students, the graduate housing website said, should not expect to receive housing.
History student Ben Schmidt GS, however, indicated that it is now possible for fifth-year students to receive housing, something he calls an “abnormality.”
“The situation now, I think it’s fair to say, is extraordinarily good ... [and is] far better than it will be in five years,” Schmidt explained.
“There will be suddenly more people looking for housing off-campus,” said GSG facilities chair and politics student Brookes Brown GS.
Off-campus housing is, on average, more expensive than University housing, but members of the GSG are still concerned with the cost of University housing.
The University intends to take down Butler Tract, one of the cheapest graduate housing options, after the Hibben-Magie work is finished., but then “there won’t be as many cheap options available,” Brown explained.
A copy of the Housing Master Plan provided to the GSG Executive Committee earlier this month estimated that 2014 prices for the Hibben-Magie structures would be $647 through $1,252 per bed. The apartments currently run from $505 to $770 per bed.
Graduate students expressed additional concerns about the cost of the types of units offered.
“The majority of cheap options will come in the form of ... units of three to four bedrooms.” Brown said. “That’s a fantastic option for younger or less-settled students, but it is not a great option for … families and the like. I still remain concerned that there won’t be very good housing options available to them.”
The proposed Hibben-Magie site will contain a mixture of one- to four-bedroom townhomes from 1,300 to 1,600 square feet and apartments of 650 to 1,100 square feet. The plans also call for a “commons” facility that may include a fitness center, a social lounge, a children’s playroom and outdoor social and recreational areas.
While the site is being constructed, current Hibben-Magie residents will be relocated to the Stanworth Apartments, which is primarily occupied by faculty, staff and their families. The apartment complex, located along Route 206, currently has 51 vacant units.
GSG officials said they hoped to further contribute to the housing plans, and Kane noted that “the Graduate School partnership with the development team has also been critical to the process. Graduate School staff work closely with facilities staff and the graduate student population to ensure that the most important graduate student housing program objectives are met by the proposed project.”
“The University has done a lot to reach out to graduate students,” Brown noted. “They are trying really hard.”
However, other graduate students are not as pleased.
In a GSG meeting on Wednesday, Schmidt noted that the University administration is “spectacularly bad about housing policy issues for grad students.”
The University does not expect to hear back from the Planning Board until this summer.
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