Editorial: International grad students deserve on-campus housing

Friday, September 5, 2008

In the game of musical apartments, most graduate students weren’t even allowed to play last spring at the Jayhawker Towers. That’s because the Department of Student Housing approved substantially fewer housing applications from new graduate students to make room for ongoing renovations at the Towers that will be completed around Fall 2012.

Whereas graduate students got the ax, the number of housing contracts given to new athletes and new undergraduates remained similar to pre-renovation figures. The disparity was by design.

“You have to cut back somewhere and graduate students are more prepared to adjust. They’re older and more mature,” said Diane Robertson, DSH director.

DSH’s justification reveals insufficient planning and consideration. It fails to take into account that many graduate students in the Towers are international students who don’t have cars and are new to the United States. Nearly one in five graduate students who live on campus is an international student, according to the Spring 2008 demographic report released by the University.

It is important for the University to provide these students a communal environment that’s inexpensive and close to campus.

Without the Towers, international graduate students have been left with no viable on-campus living options.

Stouffer Place Apartments, which are adjacent to the Towers, are given primarily to students with families. And although graduate students are technically allowed to live in the dorms, very few do, and there’s little wonder why — the freshman atmosphere isn’t compatible with the heavy graduate workload.

Also, international students tend to eat foods from their native country, and the dorms don’t provide adequate cooking facilities. On the other hand, each apartment in Jayhawker Towers includes a kitchen.

DSH knows better than to alienate international graduate students. It should’ve put undergraduates on the Jayhawker Towers chopping block instead.

Undergraduates have a multitude of living options that international graduate students don’t. Undergrads can live on Daisy Hill, in a greek house or off-campus because many undergraduates own cars. There also aren’t as many international undergrads — these students make up only 4 percent of the undergraduate population.

The only other option was to exile the athletes, but this didn't make sense when they practice across the street.

Reserving space in the Jayhawker Towers for international graduate students during the remaining renovation years and beyond is of utmost importance if the University wishes to continue attracting this vital sector of the student population.

—Ian Stanford for the editorial board

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