Month: December 2017

Posted on

What does your dorm look like?

Quality of Housing

Arnav Bhutani

Oregon State University (OSU) policy states that all freshmen must live on-campus during their first year as a part of the Universities’ first year experience program. It is already clear that the costs of the meal plan and dorms are too high. However, the situation is made worse when looking at the inconsistencies and the poor quality of the dorms for the students to choose from.

The quality of on campus halls is abysmal. The majority of Halls on campus are doubles measuring 15 feet by 12 feet for two people. Totaling around 90 square feet per a person in their dorm room, not including their desks, closets and beds. All dorms feature extremely small and uncomfortable ‘extra-large’ twin mattresses. Students are expected to cram their possessions wherever they fit. Many halls such as Sacket Hall were built over sixty years ago, and it shows. Power outlets are limited, rooms and furniture smell right after move in and the floor plan is archaic, with walls which reduce floor space and only serve to make the small rooms smaller. No dorms have AC systems, so older dorms become extremely warm during the spring and summer months. Students have to wait multiple weeks before seeing things like door scanners, laundry machines and elevators get serviced.

 

Finley Hall’s floorplan is shown below.

Finley Hall, Oregon State University – Room Plan

The amount of space per a person in Finley greatly contrasts with that of other halls such as West Hall, which is displayed below.

 

West Hall Floor Plan

As you can see, each room in West hall not only seems to have more than double the space of Finley, but also has a private, built in bathroom, and a separate desk and sleeping area for each resident. This floorplan isn’t even the most extravagant out there. The ILLC, Tebeau Hall, and Halsel Hall also accommodate more space per a person than in Finley Hall.

It is clear that the various dorms at OSU need to be upgraded. Even while looking at options just on campus, it is clear that certain halls give their occupants more space and amenities than others. While all dorms could use an upgrade, the school should focus on remodeling those that have fallen behind the standard set by halls such as West, Tebeau, Halsel and the ILLC.

Posted on

Housing

On Campus

A first year student who does not live within a 30 mile radius of Oregon State is required to live on campus their first year. There are a total of 15 resident halls you could live at, but the most common option according to Oregon State’s “UHDS” website is a double in Buxton hall, which is close to the average price of most doubles on campus. However, price is very subjective when only looking at the numbers. One can argue that the price of Buxton ($8610, without meal plan) versus the price of Finley ($8370, without meal plan) is similar in cost, but not quality.

Buxton

Finley

Although Buxton hall was built in 1961, the building has undergone full renovations in 2001 as opposed to Finley, which was built in 1966 and was never touched since. In the past year, on campus housing cost has drastically increased. An average room in 2015-2016 cost $7878 (without meal plan) and now has gone up to $8610 (without a meal plan). This is partly due to the increased number of incoming students. In the last ten years, Oregon State’s main campus enrollment increased by nearly ten thousand students. In the past five years, Oregon State has admitted more students than it can house, causing students to be stuffed into rooms designed for only two people or temporarily placed with a resident advisor. Due to the small room size, it is common to bunk/loft your bed, which cost $210. However, if a bed is left unlofted it cost $100 in labor. It is also common to decorate your room and hang up posters, pictures, calendars, etc, but if you pierce a hole in your wall, it can cost up to $440 to fix! And that’s not it, if your door is damaged it cost $550 to replace! $350 in parts and $200 in labor, even if you know how to fix it yourself. Everything has a cost, and unfortunately, so does a room change. Having a roommate can be a double edged sword and sometimes it’s best to put yourself in a different environment. On top of the hassle of moving all of your stuff into another room, Oregon State charges you with a $75 room change fee.

The saying “you have to spend money to make money” has never been truer when referring to education. However, education is an investment and the cost of on campus housing can surpass the cost of tuition. There is financial aid, grant and scholarships to help compensate for the cost of tuition, but nothing for housing. I understand that Oregon State’s first year housing policy is for students to become familiar with the campus and meet other students, but transfer students or students who took a year(s) off after high school are exempt from the policy, but are in the same situation as first year students.

http://https://uhds.oregonstate.edu/sites/uhds.oregonstate.edu/files/rate_sheet_for_2017-18_-_final_7-17-17.pdf

Off Campus

There are a number of off campus housing options, all at different price ranges so you can find one that fits your needs and budget. Since Corvallis is a college town, almost everything revolves around Oregon State, so housing options are not far from campus. The most expensive option is called the Retreat. Because it is the most expensive it’s arguably the nicest. The cost of a 4 bedroom, 4 bath house is about $8,700 for a full year, which is the highest priced housing. The house comes fully furnished with high speed internet and cable. The retreat comes with high quality amenities such as a game room, weight room, tanning beds, swimming pool, computer lab, bike storage and complimentary coffee bar, while being less than 1 mile away from Oregon State.

In the medium price range is Tyler Townhomes. The most common floor plan comes fully furnished with internet, cable tv, a kitchen, living room, 5 bedrooms and a 3 car garage. Each bedroom is very spacious and comes with its own private bathroom. The house is fully carpeted with a heater in each room to customize temperature throughout the house. The cost for a full year is $7,200 per person and is only half a mile away from campus.

At the lowest price point is Orchard Crest Apartments. Orchard crest comes with 2 bedrooms and 1 bath. The apartment comes with heat, internet, a kitchen, living room and 1 parking space. It cost $4,800 per person and is less than half a mile away from campus.

Not only are all these options cheaper than on campus housing, each bedroom is bigger in square footage, but is meant to accommodate for one person. Keep in mind all these options are a full 12 month lease compared to Oregon State’s more expensive 9 month contract, let alone most on campus housing does not come with the high quality amenities, nor privacy of most off campus housing. With the rapid growth of Oregon State’s population, on campus housing will only become more limited and possible more costly. Allowing first year students to live off campus will not only ease the over capacitated dorms, but also allows students to be flexible with their budget. There are plenty of campus solutions, all at different price ranges to fit each student’s needs. Oregon State should think about revising the first year on campus housing policy to at least make it optional. 

Posted on

Expand the Meal Plan

Oregon State University encourages you to purchase a meal plan by giving you a discount at all of their on campus dining halls. But, you can not use your meal plan money at every food stop on campus. This can be confusing to first-year students who don’t know anything about Oregon State. They could go to somewhere like Java II and try to use their meal plan to pay for it only to find out that they have to either use Orange Cash or real money. All of the other restaurants that you can find in OSU’s Memorial Union are also not covered by the meal plan So, to fix this problem, OSU could expand what their meal plan covers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Currently, the only places that are covered by the meal plan are all they major dining halls(West, Arnold, and McNary) and Bing’s at Weatherford Hall. To expand this, they could have all of the restaurants that can be found on campus covered by the meal plan. This would give on-campus students more variety in the places that they could go to eat at. This would also give the meal plan more value cause you can eat at real food places like Panda Express and Togos. The volume of students that purchase a meal plan would also increase. This would help both OSU and all of OSU’s students. First year students that are required to buy a meal plan wouldn’t feel like they are limited by the food that is served by the three main dining halls. OSU would then benefit because increasing the selection of food means that it will attract more students to purchase a meal plan and also it would increase the amount that first-year on campus students would purchase so that they could eat more of their meals on campus versus having to go off campus for some of their meals on the weekends.

Expanding the meal plan would not only help the students of Oregon State University but it would also help Oregon State university as a whole by giving students more variety in what is covered and by giving more money to OSU.

Posted on

Are you exempt?

Oregon State University: First Year Experience Exemptions Policy

Arnav Bhutani

The first-year housing experience at Oregon State University costs too much. But worst of all, the majority of OSU students cannot choose where they live during their first year. OSU policy dictates that all students must stay in the dorms. The only way for us students to avoid this problem is to qualify for an exemption as outlined by the OSU first year experience document. Should the exemptions policy in this document be violated, students can be met with “sanctions through the student conduct process”.

However, this list of exemptions comes with one important caveat, you can’t use an exemption to save money. In short, students can’t move out of the dorms to avoid paying the cost of their dorm and meal plan. However most students cannot ignore the price of the dorms. The present cost of the dorms can cost more than a students’ tuition for the first year. Allowing students to move off campus would allow them to take advantage of comparative apartments in the Corvallis area which are far less expensive. The dorms provide no clear advantage in terms of price, so forcing students to stay on campus and pay exorbitant prices is quite unfair. Allowing students to move off campus to save money would at least alleviate some of the pressures which OSU students are feeling financially.

But that is not all, allowing students to use exemptions to save money isn’t the only problem with the OSU exemptions policy, we need to look at the exemptions themselves. The exemptions seem to fall into three categories:

  • The student is living in an OSU-sanctioned fraternity or sorority.
  • The student is not a first-year student
  • The student is living with family in or near Corvallis

It would be very difficult for a student to save money living off campus during the first year with these exemptions. Greek life at OSU often costs just as much as the dorms, and to add to that, not all freshman opt into Greek life. Forcing a student to choose a lifestyle that they are uncomfortable with just to save money seems to be contrary to OSU’s mission of providing an excellent teaching and learning environment to achieve student success. Another category of exemptions requires the student not be a first-year student, in which case the student wouldn’t be affected by the first-year policy in the first place. The last category of exemptions requires first year students to live with their family in or near Corvallis. While this exemption is practical, the university cannot expect all of its first-year students who struggle financially to have the resources to move their families to Corvallis. While some of the exemptions presented in the OSU exemptions policy can help students save money by living off campus, they are very narrow and do not apply to the majority of first-year students.

It is clear that the OSU first year housing experience needs to be changed. Whether that comes through exemptions or the policy itself. Students need to be given more options when it comes to housing. Oregon State University has transformed on-campus housing from being an affordable option for students to another way to siphon money out of students’ already meager bank accounts.

Posted on

Is Your Meal Plan Worth It?

Oregon State University encourages all students to purchase a meal plan by selling to them that they have quality food and service. Also, it is quick and convenient for students because the food is readily available during most times of the day. But is the meal plan truly worth the large price that you have to pay? I don’t think so.

I was shopping at Winco Foods last week and I came across this half pound Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup and it caught my eye because I had never seen one that big before. So, then I looked at the price of it and it cost $10.00 which is pretty expense for candy.  I then wondered what the price of this same item would be at in Cascadia Market which is location inside of the International Living-Learnig Center. I went to check and this same item would cost a student $22.00 at an on campus market. The price difference of $12.00 is substantially high just to purchase this item with your meal plan.

West dining hall has a restaurant in it call Tomasillos which is an Italian restaurant which serves pizza and pasta. Since I make past every week I wanted to compare the quantity of food between buying everything you need to make pasta at the grocery store vs purchasing it at Tomasillos. At Tomasillos, their pasta is $6.00 and you get one serving of pasta. At Winco, it costs $12.50 to buy everything that you would need to make pasta for example, noodles, sauce and meat. This amount of pasta normally makes about five to six servings of food. In contrast to the pasta that you can get on campus, buying pasta and making from the grocery store and making it yourself would yield you four to five more serving than buying it on campus would.

Trying to buy protein on campus is also very expensive. Below I have two picture of shrimp. One is from Cascadia Market and this other is the usual one I purchase from Winco.

On the right, you can see that shrimp from Cascadia costs $6.15. In the carton, it looks like there is a maximum amount of about 15 shrimp. On top is the shrimp that I purchase from Winco Foods. This bag of shrimp costs around $3.00. In comparison, you get about 60 to 70 more pieces of shrimp. The difference between the pricing of these two items and the quantity of food you get in this example is truly shocking.

After looking at three specific examples of the cost of food on campus between the food off campus, I do not think that purchasing a meal plan is worth it. Buying food off campus is not only cheaper but you get much more food than you would if you purchase it on campus.

To fix this problem, Oregon State could lower the prices of the food that they have on campus or they could start giving students more food because I think that the price of shrimp compared to how much shrimp you get is just unreasonable especially for first-year students living in the residence halls that are trying to make their meals.