RGHTA's record

[weijian]

-------- Original Message -------- Subject: New Graduate Housing Survey
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2004 09:27:08 -0400
From: Jason Rimmer <jrimmer@RCI.RUTGERS.EDU>
Reply-To: Jason Rimmer <jrimmer@RCI.RUTGERS.EDU>
To: ALL_GRADAAS@EMAIL.RUTGERS.EDU



Hello,

Below is a letter/questionnaire from Graduate Student Housing regarding
housing in the New Street Building currently under construction. We are
asking that all departments please cut and paste the text below and
place it on their respective listservs. Now here is where it gets a
little tricky. Housing would like the students reply to go directly to
them. This can be done relatively easily. Here's how: in your open
letter, go to "Tools" on the top and select "account settings." Under
"reply-to-address" type in grdrslf@rci.rutgers.edu
. Now the students reply will go
directly to this address. Remember, after you send this email, go back
in and delete this reply-to-email. If you have any questions please
contact me at 2-7747 or jrimmer@rci.rutgers.edu.

Thank you.

Jay Rimmer
Administrative Assistant
Graduate School-New Brunswick

Dear Graduate Student:

As you may know, Rutgers University and the City of New Brunswick are
building new housing on New Street in downtown New Brunswick. The
construction is scheduled to be completed in August 2005. The building
will be a high-rise apartment complex, which will house both
undergraduate and graduate students and will include retail space and a
modern fitness center. There will be 186 apartments in the 12-story
building, which will house a total of 671 students.
In November the Division of Housing will be making determinations about
the allocation of the apartment spaces. To inform the decision process,
we need to assess the extent to which graduate students might be
interested in living in this new facility. Would you please answer the
questions which appear below regarding this building and whether or not
you would be interested in living there. To submit your answers, hit
"reply," answer the questions, and then hit "send." Please realize that
the pricing information listed below is a preliminary estimate and is
still subject to change.

Each "graduate" apartment will have three single bedrooms with one
bathroom, a living room, and a kitchen. Only those residents wishing
to sign a 12-month contract will be eligible for these spaces. The rent
is projected to be $750 per month per student, or approximately $9000
for 12 months. All rent includes cable, utilities, a Residence Life fee
and a security fee. Telephone service and parking are not included.
Verizon will provide telephone service at the request of the resident.
Parking is available through the parking deck located directly behind
the building. Cost for parking in the New Brunswick deck associated
with the building is $120 per month (this fee is separate from the
Rutgers parking fee). Residents with cars will have the option of not
parking in the deck if they do not wish to incur this monthly fee The
first floor of the building will be retail space, including several
stores and restaurants.

_*Graduate Housing is asking that you respond to this email no later
than Monday November 1, 2004 by 2:00 pm.*_ We are planning to hold
information sessions later this semester; the dates will be published
once they are confirmed. Indicating interest in the new building is not
a commitment or guarantee of housing.

Name:
Are you potentially interested in the new housing:(check one) Yes
No
If no, please indicate the reason: (check all that apply)
Cost: Location: Parking: Other:

If other please provide explanation:

[weijian]

----- Original Message -----
From: Jeffery Perlman
To: steering_committee@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, October 29, 2004 10:58 PM
Subject: Re: [steering_committee] [Fwd: Re: New Graduate Housing Survey (fwd)]


Hi all,

I can shed a little history on this housing development. When I was President of the Graduate Housing Association, I and five other students were invited to a meeting with DEVCO, the development arm for the City of New Brunswick. During this meeting (summer 2003), we were presented with the plans for this new dormitory. DEVCO stated that it's goal was to construct a "high-end product", that's developer lingo for housing with plenty of amenities. They wanted to do it this way because "they wanted an exit strategy in case the project failed". This meant that if students could not be enticed to live in these dorms, then the housing units could be sold as up-scale market rate housing. So that is one reason for the high costs. There is one other, and that is the parking deck. The parking deck is absolutely huge (if you've passed by the construction site, you know what I mean) and it amounts to almost 2/3 of the building footprint. It also accounts for a significant part of the building's construction costs (I'll look through my notes for the exact number). BUT the parking deck isn't for the sole use of the students - it's also for the Heldrich Palza that is being constructed next door. SO - students are paying for the financing of the parking deck even though it will be used by others. I mentioned this issue to DEVCO and I was blown off.

Finally, the initial plan was to not have any graduate students living in this building at all. I strongly advocated for graduate students to be included, but only if the housing costs were in-line with what graduate students could afford. I repeated this to the Rutgers Director of Housing - his response was that the rent would be 10-15% above on-campus rates. I don't know exactly what the monthly cost of on-campus housing is, but $9000 a year for these new apartments seems much higher than on-campus rates.

Now for the speculative part of my comments. Board of Governor member Fred Desanti articulated a vision for Rutgers during the Master Planning Open Forum in October of 2002. In it, he stated that a Rutgers goal would be to created a "tiered" housing system, whereby those who could only afford the bear-essentials would live in older on-campus housing and those students who could afford more would be able to live in up-scale, luxury housing. Several graduate students spoke counter to his point (Gary Bartlett in particular), but it is very clear to me that indeed this is what is going on. Philisophically speaking, I'm against economic segregation of on-campus housing - whether they be undergraduate or graduate students.

I don't know can be done....but I do know that if graduate students don't fill those housing slots, that will be all the excuse that DEVCO and Rutgers need to give that housing to undergraduates. Moreover, DEVCO and Rutgers have other collabroative housing projects in the works, and it's becoming clear that graduate student concerns may not be seriously considered.

I hope this historical overview was helpful. Let me know if/how I can be helpful.

Jeff



For more infomation, pls go to website:
http://gsa.rutgers.edu/~rghta/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RGHTA_forum/


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[weijian]

Jian,

The GSA and the AAUP TA/GA Steering Committee are showing some interest
in the grossly inflated rent in the new housing complex. Here's
Kristen Gilmore's e-mail about it:

Cheers,
Matthew

--- krisgil@rci.rutgers.edu wrote:

> To: steering_committee@yahoogroups.com
> From: krisgil@rci.rutgers.edu
> Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2004 22:04:52 -0400 (EDT)
> Subject: Re: [steering_committee] [Fwd: Re: New Graduate Housing
> Survey
> (fwd)]
>
> Hi, sorry i missed the meeting yesterday. i have recently spoken to
> billy
> malley who works in grad res life. he is also aware of the
> ridiculous
> costs, mainly the parking costs. i am not sure what you all
> discussed
> last night, but i will try to catch up on it. i am also looking for
> a
> grad rep to sit on the committee that is starting to oversee the
> opening
> of the building. if anyone is interested, it is a really good
> opportunity
> to bring the grad concerns to the table. they really want a grad
> student
> who is in housing now, though. send me an email if you think of
> someone.
>
> thanks, kristen
>
> >
> > Hey guys,
> >
> > I just got this email from a guy in my department regarding the
> > ridiculously high rent of these new grad apartments. I think plenty
> of
> > people will be irritated by this new housing. Bill is right. The
> rent +
> > parking fee = 2/3 of a TA/GA salary. I don't know who the
> administration
> > thinks will able to live in this housing. Microbiologists?
> >
> > Since we discussed this at the meeting last night, I thought it
> worthwhile
> > to forward Bill's comments along to the group.
> >
> > Cheers
> > Kristy
> >
> >
> > *****
> > Hi Kristy,
> >
> > You've probably spent way too much time on issues like these and
> are
> > probably sick of dealing with them, but I thought I'd send you this
> email
> > and if you wanted you could pass it along to whoever else is
> working on
> > these sorts of things.
> >
> > I guess you noticed the attached email. $10,440 a year ($9000 for
> rent
> > plus $1440 for parking) to live in a graduate apartment! I'm sure
> it's
> > going to be nice, but can any graduate student really afford to
> spend 2/3
> > of their income on an apartment.
> >
> > I know that the collective bargain has been reached, and I think it
> is
> > much better than the old agreement. So nothing can be done in the
> near
> > term about salary. However, I wonder if it would be possible to
> lobby for
> > lower prices for these units. I think that lobbying for lower
> prices
> > would be a win-win proposition for grad students, regardless of
> whether
> > Rutgers lowered the prices or not. If grad students ask for lower
> prices
> > and Rutgers cuts the prices, then great, some grad students can
> live
> > there. If Rutgers doesn't lower the prices and says something
> > like these prices are market rate (an argument they would almost
> > certainly have to make to justify the prices), then that is also a
> good
> > outcome because grad students can use this as evidence in future
> > negotiations of high housing costs in the area.
> >
> > You've probably already thought of this but I thought I'd share my
> rant
> > with you nonetheless.
> >
> > Bill
> >
> >
>

[weijian]

http://www.thnt.com/thnt/story/0,21282,1101451,00.html

New RU dorms will be pricey


Published in the Home News Tribune 11/04/04
$750 per-month rent
By JONATHAN TAMARI
STAFF WRITER
NEW BRUNSWICK:The newest Rutgers University dormitory will also be the most expensive.


ADVERTISEMENT

Rooms at College Hall, under construction in the heart of New Brunswick's downtown, will cost graduate students $750 a month, or $9,000 a year, according to a school projection.
That rent, which will pay for a single in one of the dorm's three-bedroom units, includes Residence Life and security fees. Parking at the adjacent parking deck will cost another $145 a month, according to the New Brunswick Parking Authority.

By comparison, a single room in a four-bedroom graduate student apartment currently costs $6,738, or $561 a month, according to Rutgers. Parking on campus at Rutgers costs $120 for the year.


Courtesy New Brunswick Development Corp.

An artist's rendering depicts the finished rooms at College Hall dormitory in New Brunswick.


Undergraduates, who are slated to live in units with two double rooms, will each pay about $621 a month in rent at College Hall, according to the New Brunswick Development Corp., which is building the dorm. Undergraduate rent at another downtown dorm costs $545 a month, but that amount is set to increase next year, DevCo President Christopher Paladino said. Neither figure includes additional student fees.

Some students say the price is too high.

Jian Wei, a physics graduate student, said teachers and graduate assistants earn just $15,000 a year in stipends. Many are foreign students and are not allowed to earn money other ways.

"It's too expensive for us to live in there," Wei said. "If you keep raising the rent like this, it will be difficult for Rutgers to attract the best of the international students."

But Paladino said College Hall will have many amenities and that a survey of more than 4,000 students indicated a willingness to pay higher prices to live in the new building.

The rooms will include living rooms, kitchens, Internet access and cable television service, and the dorm will have 24-hour security. The building will also include a fitness center and convenience store.

"It will be the newest, it will be the most modern," Paladino said. "It will be the nicest site Rutgers has in its portfolio."

The rent prices will help the school pay for the building without using rent from other dorms to subsidize the new site, Paladino said.

College Hall and the garage will cost a combined $75 million. Both are slated to open next fall.

Of the 671 beds at College Hall, 144 will be in three-bedroom single units. Those units will first be offered to graduate students, according to Sandra Lanman, a university spokeswoman. Any single rooms that are not taken will be offered to undergraduates.

The 527 beds in the four-person units will be offered to to Rutgers juniors, seniors and others who have attended four semesters of college.

Students who live at College Hall will be considered "on-campus" students, allowing them to purchase Rutgers parking permits instead of parking at the garage, Lanman said. A bus will stop in front of the dorm, she said.

Jonathan Tamari: (732) 565-7347; jtamari@thnt.com