Transfer Desperado! UMDRL Aims For Off-Campus Housing!

UMD Resident Life is now looking towards off-campus housing because transfer students are unable to get a decent dorm.

Junior economics major Neville Jones didn't hear from the university until July 2005 when he transferred to Maryland from Virginia Tech, and after spending more than a year on the waiting list and reaching the 10-spot, he was knocked down to 200 by the incoming wave of freshmen in August.

This spring, Jones didn't even bother to place himself on the waitlist, saying, "I just figured that it was going to be the same fight all over again. There wasn't any point. Nobody told me that it was going to be so hard to find housing."

Left without a reasonable spot on the waitlist and starting their housing search much later than returning students, most transfer students interviewed said even if they are lucky enough to find off-campus housing, only the least desirable apartments - usually already passed over by returning students - are left.

Even if they can get a decent livable apartment. They have to deal with the student-unfriendly mamagement

Senior public relations major Elin Hollis found an apartment in University House in April shortly after she was accepted to Maryland after transferring from University of Southern California last year. With a drippy faucet, outdated appliances and a leaking roof, her biggest complaint about living there was that she didn't feel she was living in a student-friendly environment.

The management's office hours for taking complaints and collecting rent typically began after students left for classes and ended before they returned. Her neighbors were a mix of some students but many graduate students and even some senior citizens.

"I didn't feel very connected to the university," she said. "The management's attitude was just collect the rent."

One way the Maryland Government can ehlp out is to build liveable affordable public housing near the university and the City of College Park. OR even better, building a new dorm. Since the Board of Regents rejected a proposal to build a 600 bed high rise dorm last summer, O'Malley should have the courage to do so.