Jake Jones Jones367@iusb.edu
The River Crossing Campus Apartments will go through policy changes for the 2009-2010 academic year that will effect residential students in multiple ways.
The first significant change is the pricing of the apartments. There is a 4.8% increase to a single person apartment to $7860 up from $7500. The two bedroom apartment will now rent for $6288 from $6000, and the four bedroom apartment will now be $5200 up from $5000 this year.
"The less than five percent increase is due to the increasing cost of utilities," explained Paula Smith, Director of Housing and Residential Life.
There was an issue with residential students who wished to stay on campus during the summer, but were not enrolled in summer classes. The academic year contract for 2008-2009 stated: "You will be notified by letter of your assignment to a particular apartment, along with confirmation of the term of the contract (2008-09 Academic Year; 2008-09 Academic Year + Summer 2009 based on enrollment for summer session or intention to enroll Fall 2009 semester)."
Students read the "or" in the "term of contract" description as meaning that they could stay in the apartments over the summer based on their enrollment in the fall semester but this turned out not to be the case.
"For eligibility students must always be enrolled students, this is student housing not private housing… we are making arrangements on a case by case basis [for some students]," Smith explained. The new contract for the 2009-2010 academic year does not include any descriptions about spring and summer sessions because it has now been split into two separate contracts-one contract for the academic year and another separate one for the summer sessions.
Students staying in student housing over the summer have to move out of their current apartments and be consolidated into a few buildings. This was done for several reasons. First is the issue of security. With some buildings only having two or three students in them is not practical safe, or efficient. The second reason is because IU South Bend may need to provide conference housing for university affiliated programs that come on campus in the summer. Finally, there is a plan to put the buildings on a summer rotation of repair and renovation, each summer having different buildings utilized so that the others may be worked on.
Smith explained the consolidation strategy, "We will always be consolidating for summer because we can close down entire buildings for renovations and repairs." The housing handbook given to residential students at the beginning of the year will be undergoing some minor changes. Additional info will be added about financial expectations and the processes of payment in order to clear up misunderstandings. Some changes to online processes include making the email for maintenance (fixmyapt@iusb.edu) more effective and clear about how to submit work orders and what constitutes emergency maintenance. Some issues arose regarding paying for housing. Housing is paid through the Office of the Bursar.
"Tuition is always paid first, Housing as an auxiliary service is paid last. Just because [students] make a payment at the beginning of the semester does not mean it goes specifically to housing," Smith explained. Smith and housing and residential life staff will be trying to give students more resources on their financial options so they know about the deadlines and requirements for eligibility.
For the 2009-2010 academic year the key card system will be a requirement and Housing and Residential Life will no longer be issuing regular keys. The key cards are cheaper to replace and if lost, and do not require locks to be changed. The key cards also capture the swipe history of the user and record it.
Also regarding housing access, there are no plans to change the current guest check in policy that requires residents to check in guests at the Community Center.
Many changes were made to the "Cancellation/Cancellation Fees." The original contract had a $400 contract breakage fee. That breakage fee will be increased to $500 for the 2009-2010 academic year contracts. The cancellation fee is applied if students don't show up to housing by 5:00 pm on the first day of classes and if they sign an academic year contract and do not enroll in the spring semester. Housing also adapted a new withdraw policy similar to the current class withdraw system. Residents who voluntarily withdraw from the housing contract in the first week will pay the "daily rate through the cancelation date," second week withdrawal will cost 25% of the remaining semester fee, third week withdrawal will cost 50% of the remaining semester fee, fourth week withdrawal will cost 75% of the total semester fee. After the fourth week residents will be charged for 100% of the semester fee.
The original contract for 2008-2009 did not have a phased withdraw process and instead charged students rent through their cancellation date, plus 60% of the remaining balance on the contract for the rest of the year. As opposed to the new contract which charges the percentages based on the remaining semester fee instead of remaining fee on the academic year.
Before the contract start date there were significant changes. In the 2008-2009 contracts, if a cancelation was received by June 1 there would be no cancellation fee. After June 2 the $200 deposit served as the cancellation fee. The housing contract for 2009-2010 moved the cancellation date back to May 1. Resident cancellation requests received before May 1 will receive a $50 refund on their $200 prepayment deposit.
Students who request cancellation after August 15 will forfeit their $200 prepayment deposit and an additional $300 late cancellation fee.
Most of the contractual changes were made based on legal counsel from IU Bloomington and also based on housing standards at other IU campuses.
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