TOWSON

The field of dirt and unmanned bulldozers next to Towson Run apartments looks like nothing more than vacant construction at first, but to students at this university sleeping in tents on McKeldin Mall this week, those logs and gravel littered on the edge of Towson’s campus would be a valuable commodity.

Of Maryland’s two largest universities facing housing peril and ever-growing student bodies, Towson is the only one with immediate plans to increase its on-campus housing. By Fall 2008, that construction site will be home to 670 students – something the more than 600 students who were booted off this campus this week say the state’s flagship university should pursue.

Towson administrators are working on plans that would increase on-campus housing by 3000 beds. But that’s after that school underwent its own housing crisis in 2005, when it left about 260 students eligible for on-campus housing the following fall-out on their feet. In 2006, Towson uprooted its upperclassmen, that time changing its policy to strip housing from some juniors, placing them in a pool based on seniority, much like this university’s priority application process.

“A lot of places are getting flooded with students,” said Towson sophomore Paul Dunn, who commutes from nearby Timonium. He said the Towson area has many off-campus options, but students might have to pay more or move farther from the campus to find a place to live.

Sound familiar?

“It’s all a crap shoot around here,” said Towson junior Ryan Nelson, who lives in Towson Run, across the street from the main campus. “There are no places to live; it’s absolutely terrible. [Towson’s] selling their student body short.”

This university and Towson applied to the University System of Maryland’s Board of Regents, seeking funds for housing to offset increasing enrollment. Both universities were told to look for the money through private ventures. Towson heeded the system’s advice, while administrators at this university, however, have said they could not gear new public-private housing for freshmen and sophomores.

Towson Run is one development Towson is building as a part of a public-private project, which will help absorb the increase housing demand that university will face as it increases enrollment to 25,000 in 2012.

While Nelson, Dunn and other students interviewed at that university may disagree whether procuring housing is more difficult in Towson or College Park, they say students at Towson expect to live off-campus by their senior year. One of the biggest gripes students at this university have is that Resident Life didn’t give them enough warning time to find ideal housing, and that, because of the increased demand, local property owners are jacking up prices.

“For the most part they did warn us in advance,” Dunn said about Towson. “The policy was clear at first.”

This sentiment was echoed by several students on the Towson campus, but many acknowledged that even though they may be done with the “campus experience” by their junior year, they’d like to have the option to stay.

“A lot of people want to stay [on-campus] because it’s convenient, it’s affordable and you have the college atmosphere,” said Nelson, who paid his room, board and tuition in advance to secure housing.

And there is a very high demand for housing in the five neighborhoods within walking distance of the Towson campus. According to Nelson, students slept out overnight after the Super Bowl to get a spot in University Village, one of the most expensive units in that area.

Even Towson’s “party” housing, Valley View, which students described as “sketchy” and “dangerous,” goes for top dollar, students said. The neighborhood’s buildings, which look like upscale Knox boxes, overlook Towson’s campus but are poorly maintained, residents said. Valley View is scheduled for a massive overhaul next semester funded by Capstone Management Corporation, which built University Courtyards and South Campus Commons in College Park.

Towson Assistant Vice President of Housing & Residence Life Jerry Dieringer said comparing the housing situations at Towson and College Park is like comparing “apples and oranges,” because Towson has fewer students and less housing. Thirty-two percent of Towson’s 19,000 students live on the campus, Dieringer said. Roughly 8,000, or about 42 percent, live within two miles of the school, he said.

At this university, 57 percent of undergraduates live off the campus, said Off Campus Commuter Association President Jahantab Siddiqui in a column for The Diamondback last month.

Contact reporter Owen Praskievicz at prazskieviczdbk@gmail.com