Though there are high hopes that next year's housing changes will make West Campus more diverse, some students have complained that the housing rates for the dorms on West are having the opposite effect.
"[Some] minority students don't have the funds--they can't afford to live on West, period," said Ann Sempowski, a Trinity junior who is currently living in a Central Campus apartment.
Sempowski had applied and was accepted as a member of Spectrum, a new multicultural living group which will be housed on West Campus next year. She decided to rescind her status as a live-in member after finding out how much it would have cost her to live on West.
The differences between rates offered for housing on West and the other campuses often amounts, over the course of a University education, to thousands of dollars.
For instance, to live in an air-conditioned double room on West would cost about $1,000 more per academic year than it would cost to live in a two-bedroom apartment suite on Central Campus.
"Why live on West and pay $4,000 for a dorm when you can have your own [Central campus] apartment for $2,000 less?" Sempowski asked. "To me, that makes no sense."
The differences in costs between housing on West and Central may be further increased due to required food plans. Students living on West are required to buy at least food plan A, which next year will cost $875 a semester. Students living on Central are required to buy plan F, which costs approximately $300.
Some sort of required food plan is necessary because "we need some level of commitment in order to be able to operate a $10 million food service operation," said Wes Newman, director of dining and special events.
The amount of aid granted to needy students is not affected by differences in housing or food expenses, said Stacy McCoreson, associate director of the office of undergraduate financial aid.
"It's up to the student to know what their budget will allow them in terms of housing and meal plans and things like that," she said. "If [students] choose to have a single they need to have additional money to cover additional expenses."
McCoreson said that those students who may be dissatisfied with the rates have not been especially vocal.
"I've not heard many complaints about the cost of West housing," she said.
Likewise, Karen Steinour, dean of residential life, said that only one student has approached her with concerns about the cost of living on West. "This, [however], doesn't mean that it is not an important issue," she said.
This student was Trinity junior Sarah Dodds, the co-coordinator of Spectrum.
"West is for the elite people who can afford it," Dodds said.
In addition to Sempowski not being able to live in the group because of the high costs, about five people were deterred from even applying to the group, Dodds said.
When students are prevented from living in the group because of finances, this clashes with the group's mission of being a "house of diversity" and a "safe haven" for minorities on West Campus, Dodds said.
"Spectrum is supposed to be a house that includes economic differences," she said. But the rate structure has "limited the definition of diversity" which the group had hoped to establish.
"We have gone to everyone," Dodds said, to see if the group could get lower rates for prospective members who were unable to afford the costs of West.
When the group approached the financial aid office, they said they would not change their rates, Dodds said, and that any subsidy that the group tried to raise for students would be deducted from their aid packages.
To help assuage housing costs, Spectrum considered trying to find a corporate sponsor. "The University didn't like that because [they thought] the money should only go to the University as a whole," Dodds said.
Alpha Phi Alpha, the traditionally all-black fraternity that will also reside on West next semester, will have only one member not join the group in its new dorm due to housing costs among other reasons, said Dan Blue, the fraternity's president.
Steinour said she expects a committee to be formed next semester to look at the problem and to evaluate the possible consequences of equalizing the different housing rates.
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