The Lantern

Issue date: 3/25/08 Section: Campus

Hope Moore/The Lantern

President Gordon Gee's plan to make it mandatory for students live on campus for two years will affect not only parents and students, but landlords who own off-campus housing.

"Some landlords will probably find themselves in the position where they will start selling off a lot of their buildings because they don't want them anymore, because they're harder to rent, harder to take care of because of the type of tenants that they have coming in at a higher turnover," said Jay Kerr, property manager at Oxford Rentals.

And one realty company says the less desirable tenants who might move in after the students leave could drive some companies to bankruptcy.

"The value of the property goes down, and they cannot sell it to pay their mortgage," said George Kanellopoulos, owner of OSU Properties. "People cannot refinance so they can get a low rate, and they cannot sell because the house is worth much less and they lose their homes."

There are 176 realty companies that own property in the neighborhood east of High Street, called the University District.

For the top 11 realty companies, the average rent per bedroom per month is $389, according to the annual USG Renting Guide for 2007-2008. And with the price of utilities factored in, it can cost students anywhere from $719 to $760 per month.

The fee to live in the dorms is about $100 more. It costs $729 per month for just room and board, according to the OSU Web site.

Factoring in the basic meal plan - which has 100 swipes and $100 on the BuckID - the cost of living on-campus totals $842 a month.

Nonetheless, some OSU parents do not think it is a problem.

"I don't think it would be a financial burden if students are required to be in the dorms for two years," said Jeff Bacso, a parent of two OSU students, Katie Bacso, a junior in special education and Matt Bacso, a sophomore in business finance.

Bacso does, however, think there is at least one advantage to living off-campus.

"I do feel that my children have learned to budget their money better while living off campus," he said.

Bacso also said the food students receive for their meal plan is not worth the money parents pay for it.

"I think that the meal plans are expensive for what you get," he said. "You can get better and cheaper food at Kroger or Aldi's."

The university insists it does not want to make dorm life financially difficult for students and their parents.

"Maintaining affordability for students is a very important consideration," said Ruth Gerstner, spokesperson for Student Affairs. "Keeping OSU economically accessible to all academically qualified students will be a key part of the planning process."

The realty companies are not only worried about losing their properties, but they are also concerned about the quality of the neighborhood.

"There are chances that you could have more problems with (crime) especially with the type of tenants you would have coming in," Kerr said. "There's a good chance that the crime could move closer and could become more prevalent."

University officials have said they are concerned about the effect of sophomores living on-campus on the neighborhood, and said they want to have a positive effect rather than a negative one. They are, however, unsure of what the result of the housing proposal will be.

One landlord says the fallout from the plan will be larger than the university thinks.

"The bottom line is it will affect our livelihood," Kanellopoulos said. "They will affect the quality of the housing and they will affect the students coming out of OSU."

Elyse Coulter can be reached at coulter.36@osu.edu.

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