HOUSING RALLY, Thursday April 12th at 6PM on Mckeldin Mall
The following is a message from the event organizers:
Come out and show the entire state (via all major news networks) that it is time for a real solution to UMD’s housing crisis. Join us to protest Resident Life’s gross failure to UMD seniors and to show the Board of Regents, UMD, and Prince Georges County that we will fight for DECENT, AFFORDABLE housing both on and off campus. These parties must fund, prioritize, and incentivize more student housing whenever possible.
News coverage so far:
-Fox (click video)
-NBC
Click here to view our interactive project map
April 11th, 2007 at 11:57 am
Congratulations! Your protests and the media coverage of this story have managed to raise the rents in CP in a matter of one week. How helpful. http://media.www.diamondbackonline.com/media/storage/paper873/news/2007/04/11/News/With-Rising.Demand.Prices.Take.A.Hike-2834008.shtml
Of course you also have to question the “facts” reported in the Diamondback. In today’s Diamondback one article reports 556 students received notices another article reports over 600 students received notices.
I think the PG County Council has it’s hands full trying to find a solution to avoid the closure of a major area hospital. Do you really think they are concerned about a housing shortage that they are smart enough to realize does not exist. RTCP students do not want to live in CP they want to live on campus, read the Diamondback.
Again, congratulations on helping raise off campus rents…well done!
April 11th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
The discrepency between the numbers has to do with the number of rising seniors put on the waitlist vs. the number of 5th year seniors put on the waitlist. RTCP is not responsible for this media coverage although we do approve of it. There is a systematic limitation to new student housing both on and off campus made apparent by the abysmally low vacancy rate in College Park. I’m not sure where you’re coming from here. on campus vs off campus is one small part of a greater issue and you should reexamine the facts.
April 11th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
It’s very disturbing to read that landlords are taking advantage of the current “housing shortage”. But it’s very clear when you read the Diamondback coverage that students would like to live ON CAMPUS. So it looks like this problem is a University problem. The current online Diamondback poll shows students would like to live on campus, but it also shows that they feel the University should admit fewer students. It would be nice to know the number of people that responded to the poll.
The University has plenty of property to build more dorms. The land at the corner of Adelphi and Metzerott Roads is University Property, there’s also land near the Admin Bldg on Metzerott Road and then there’s the golf course, losing the driving range or one fairway closest to Univ Blvd wouldn’t be so bad. You want the Univ to be more like the Univ of Michigan which has a North Campus, Central Campus and Ann Arbor Vicinity. Personally, I’m not a fan of having to use the bus system to get around campus at Ann Arbor. But dorms on the outer borders of the UMCP campus seem like a solution students and parents would like. It’s all about making housing affordable and ON CAMPUS housing is more affordable than off campus housing especially when landlords raise the rent at every “crisis” situation.
April 11th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
The University’s reluctance to build housing is not a question of placement, but, like many things in life, a matter of money. I’m sure that if the University had unlimited money, it would build more dorms; the Board of Regents and the General Assembly have strict requirements as to how the University of Maryland should fund housing.
If the P.G. delegation to the General Assembly would put as much effort into authorizing and appropriating money to the University specifically to build more on-campus housing, perhaps we could find a solution that both students and the City would enjoy: more on-campus accommodations, thus reducing the demand on the residential neighborhoods in C.P. Instead the City Council and the P.G. delegation are hell-bent on limiting current tax incentives for the construction of private student housing off campus.
However, this particular housing issue appears to be an instance where the interests of both the student body and the City converge: the Board of Regents and the State must allow the University to fund and build more housing on campus, even if it is not through a public-private partnership that the Board of Regents demands.
April 13th, 2007 at 12:14 am
If the P.G. delegation to the General Assembly would put as much effort into authorizing and appropriating money to the University specifically to build more on-campus housing
Well, does the University lobby for on-campus housing?
They certainly do for $$ for the physics bldg, etc.