Residents of University View are being advised to use lights, water and appliances sparingly, or be faced with a fee.

According to residents, the View has always had a complicated system of ratios and percentages for its utilities policy, but this October will be the first time it has been enforced.

As outlined in the 16-floor private student housing building’s leasing agreement, tenants are responsible for 63 percent of the entire building’s utility charges and the landlord handles the rest. Despite the View’s conservation advice, sent via e-mail, students will be charged if next month’s utility bill for the building – not their individual room – surpasses the utility credit allotted for each tenant.

The policy is certainly complicated, and when students were alerted of the policy change in two e-mail newsletters last week, it was not explained in any more detail. Many students also claim they never received the e-mails.

Further complicating matters is the fact that few students read the lease in its entirety. Many students had never heard of the policy, and even of those who had read it, few understood it.

Senior communication major Lauren Muskauski was one of many students confused as to what the policy means.

She set up a meeting with a building manager, two of her roommates and two other friends living in the building to clarify what was meant in the e-mail, but she and her friends were only met with hostility from the management staff, who made the meeting even more unproductive by sending mixed messages, Muskauski said.

“At the end we had to make an appointment to have another meeting,” Muskauski said. “It was as if they couldn’t get their stories straight.”

University View management declined to comment on the utilities policy.

Muskauski said she stilldoes not fully understand the policy, but finds what she does understand “outrageous.” What most disturbs her is the little control each individual tenant or even each apartment has over the amount each will pay.

“Unless we go around to everyone’s apartment and ask, ‘Excuse me, are your lights turned off?’ there’s no way to tell if everyone is doing their part,” Muskauski said.

Each tenant in a two-bedroom suite is allotted a credit of $60 per month, and each tenant in a four-bedroom suite is allotted a credit of $70 per month. If the tenant’s portion of the entire building’s bill, as determined by the ratio of square footage of tenants’ suites and the total residential square footage, is more than the credited amount, students are responsible for paying the difference.

Several residents voiced complaints about the “irritating” utility fee, and they described not knowing how to gauge the limits of their utility usage.

“It already costs enough to live here,” said resident Elizabeth Thompson, a sophomore letters and sciences major. “What are we really paying for?”

grovesdbk@gmail.com