2008 Woodie Awards
*Your Voice*
Pending housing problem: Take action!
Alex Wuestenberg
Issue date: 4/16/08 Section: Opinion
The article "Campus housing situation in limbo" on the front page of your February 20, 2008 issue brought the pending campus housing problem to my attention. It discusses the plan to build a new academic building at the site presently occupied by Wilder, Baird and Trowbridge Halls, which would require them to be demolished. This will create a need for off campus housing to be converted into makeshift residence halls for the approximately 400 students that would be displaced from the demolition in 2009 to the completion of new residence halls in 2011.
I believe this plan doesn't see the potential housing problems that could arise from the university renting the surrounding apartment complexes and we, as students of the university, should not let this happen right in front of us. The aforementioned article brought up the issue of "determining which students will receive priority placement in the remaining dorms," but I believe the problem would be farther reaching than this.
The nearby apartment complexes that would be potentially rented by the university would then displace the students who would usually have lived in them, which then creates two new housing problems.
First, the concentration of students living off-campus would be spread out farther away from campus and into areas that may not be suitable as renting properties. This could force students to find housing much farther from campus and commute to school. Also, the demand for renting apartments and houses close to campus would rise and may lead to higher prices for students to rent them.
The solution that seems reasonable to me would be to start construction on the new residence halls soon enough to be finished before the demolition of the three at the site of the new academic building. This would be a seamless transition in the amount of students the university is able to house and there would be no need for the university to rent off-campus apartments.
If you don't want to pay more in the coming years on rent or live in a makeshift residence hall off campus, contact Dean of Students Paula Knudson by phone at (608) 785-8151 or by email at knudson.paul@uwlax.edu. As students of UW-La Crosse, we will be affected the most by this situation, so we should let those who will make the decisions know what we think.
-Alex Wuestenberg
UW-L Student
I believe this plan doesn't see the potential housing problems that could arise from the university renting the surrounding apartment complexes and we, as students of the university, should not let this happen right in front of us. The aforementioned article brought up the issue of "determining which students will receive priority placement in the remaining dorms," but I believe the problem would be farther reaching than this.
The nearby apartment complexes that would be potentially rented by the university would then displace the students who would usually have lived in them, which then creates two new housing problems.
First, the concentration of students living off-campus would be spread out farther away from campus and into areas that may not be suitable as renting properties. This could force students to find housing much farther from campus and commute to school. Also, the demand for renting apartments and houses close to campus would rise and may lead to higher prices for students to rent them.
The solution that seems reasonable to me would be to start construction on the new residence halls soon enough to be finished before the demolition of the three at the site of the new academic building. This would be a seamless transition in the amount of students the university is able to house and there would be no need for the university to rent off-campus apartments.
If you don't want to pay more in the coming years on rent or live in a makeshift residence hall off campus, contact Dean of Students Paula Knudson by phone at (608) 785-8151 or by email at knudson.paul@uwlax.edu. As students of UW-La Crosse, we will be affected the most by this situation, so we should let those who will make the decisions know what we think.
-Alex Wuestenberg
UW-L Student
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