According to the Feb. 11 Diamondback, “university officials and representatives from Foulger-Pratt Argo, the East Campus developer, told members of the Graduate Student Government that subsidized rent for one room in a two-bed, one-bath apartment would cost $979. One room in a four-bed, two-bath subsidized apartment would be $670.”
As a regular user of the English language, I’m insulted. Why? Because the East Campus partners had the gall to use the word “subsidized” when describing their plans for graduate student housing. A subsidy should making housing actually affordable for graduate students so nearly 90 percent of our stipends don’t go to rent. Instead, Foulger-Pratt Argo threw out an arbitrary number not worthy of the name “monthly special,” let alone the distinguished title of “subsidy.”
Instead of spelling out a definition of “subsidized housing” for the East Campus developers, let’s look at how other schools in major metropolitan areas with expensive housing apply the term. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for example, 35 percent of graduate students live in university-owned housing. Compare that to 5 percent of graduate students that currently live in university-owned housing here in College Park. What about rents? A one-bedroom, unfurnished apartment in Cambridge, Mass., normally goes for about $2,000 per month, according to Cambridgepads.com. It is, after all, one of the most expensive neighborhoods in the country. But with MIT subsidies, graduate students can get a one-bedroom apartment for around $1,200 per month. That’s a 40 percent subsidy! And it’s available to 35 percent of MIT graduate students!
At Stanford University, subsidized housing for graduate students costs just mroe than $800 per month. Compare that to similar apartments in Palo Alto, Calif., that can run upwards of $1,300 per month, and they’re a stone’s throw from the beach, to boot.
Even universities in New York City are able to provide affordable housing for their graduate students. In Manhattan, where rents can no longer be described as stratospheric because they’ve become cosmic, New York University offers its graduate students housing grants that cover more than 50 percent of the cost of an apartment. The same is true of Columbia University, which offers subsidized one-bedroom apartments to graduate students at $1,000 per month. A one-bedroom apartment in Morningside Heights, according to New York Magazine, normally goes for $2,000 per month.
And then there’s this university. Let’s do some simple math. Rent for a two-bedroom, one-bath apartment in Seven Springs Village, arguably one of the nicer apartment complexes in College Park, is about $1,300 per month. Dividing by two – bear with me here, I’m no mathematician – gives us about $650 per month per room. Now compare that to the East Campus idea of a “subsidy.” Reproduced above is the quote from the article. We read that one room in the same two-bedroom apartment will go for $979 per month. ONE ROOM!
Only in College Park would “subsidized housing” mean higher rents.
Of course, there’s more to this comparison than rent alone. There’s value. In other words, what do you get for these rents? At MIT, you live in Cambridge, Mass., arguably one of the most affluent neighborhoods in the country. From your subsidized apartment at Stanford, you can see the sun set over the ocean and play at Pebble Beach on the weekends. As for Manhattan, 8 million people fighting and clawing their way over each other to pay exorbitant rents can’t all be wrong.
But what about College Park? Is there the academic charm of Cambridge, the culture of Manhattan or the bustle of downtown Atlanta? People tell me we have a lovely yarn store down in Hyattsville, A Tangled Skein. Only it’s sandwiched between half a dozen bail bonds joints. Aside from that, we’ve got a campus with one of the highest violent crime rates in the nation, riots, inaccessible public transportation and four liquor stores for every bum. If even just one of the nail salons on Route 1 were replaced by a nice restaurant, an art gallery or even a coffeehouse that opened before 11 a.m. – this means you, College Perk – we might feel slightly more justified in shelling out 90 percent of our stipends to rent.
Until then, I sincerely hope someone working on the East Campus project made an error. Perhaps the 9s were supposed to be 6s? I don’t know. If not, they should be ashamed of themselves. It’s an insult to graduate students and the English language.
Danny Rogers is a graduate student in the chemical physics program. He can be reached at drogers2@umd.edu.
