RMU tries to compensate for lack of housing

Over the summer, many returning students received an email with a very special offer for the coming Fall and Spring semesters.

With a high demand for on campus living, more so than in the past years, there wasn’t enough housing for everyone who requested it. As a solution, the Office of Residence Life constructed an incentive offer open to students in the local area who would be willing to move off campus for a price.

Included in the offer was a $250 refund or credit of your housing deposit, a $500 commuter meal plan for the Fall 2015 semester and additional $500 by the second semester if you are still living off campus, a free commuter parking pass for the 2015-2016 academic year valued at $140, a $360 Barnes and Noble book voucher plus an additional $1000 directed toward your RMU student account credit or by gift card.

“We didn’t want to just offer students a chance to move off campus,” Director of Residence of Life Anne Lahoda said, “We wanted to actually give them something that would help them be able to move off campus.”

The incentive offer was only taken by 40 students at RMU, despite popularity of proposal among students.

The goal of the Office of Residence Life was to appeal to localized students, who were commuting short distances to and from campus, however even students traveling further distances were proposed the offer.

In addition to all of the perks of accepting the deal, the two year residency requirement for currently enrolled students at RMU will be excused. The deadline to have accepted the offer was July, 15, with everything being granted on a first-come, first-served basis.

“We’re waiting until the new president gets here and then whenever he or she gets here, that’ll be one of the first things we talk about,” said Lahoda. “…we obviously have a need, and we need to be able to accommodate what our students want.”

There’s is a talk of building additional housing on campus but nothing is for certain currently. This housing incentive offer will most likely not be made again in the Fall term of 2016, as confirmed by Lahoda. The Office of Residence Life will be preparing, in advance, for another potential on-campus overpopulation of residence.