Darya Rotblat has seen Syracuse University students sign a lease that put them in the wrong house two miles away. She’s helped a student who signed a lease giving the landlord permission to enter whenever he deemed it necessary. One student signed a lease that required her to shampoo all the rugs in the house.

Seminars hosted this week by SU’s Office of Orientation and Off-Campus Programs aim to help students avoid these types of issues. Rotblat, the associate director of the department, is leading the sessions in an effort to help students go through the process of finding off-campus housing.

And although students just got to campus, they can start signing leases with landlords within the next two weeks. That came as a shock to Ali Baldenebro, a sophomore biology major looking to move off campus next year.

‘I thought the seminar was helpful, but I definitely feel rushed. I didn’t realize we had to sign leases so soon,’ she said. ‘I’m just afraid of gross apartments, or creaky windows that won’t open, or shoveling snow.’

Rotblat said these sessions provide more education than the housing fair her department has held for the past five years.

‘Students weren’t getting the education they needed to make wise decisions,’ she said. ‘This helps them consider if they’re ready to work with a landlord, or pay electric, water, gas and cable bills.’

During Tuesday evening’s session, attended by 20 students, Rotblat expressed concern about signing leases. She encouraged students to take advantage of a service sponsored by SU’s Graduate Student Organization in which Student Legal Services will read through any undergraduate or graduate student’s lease for free – even if the student only has 24 hours to sign it.

Despite the fact that lease signing for the next school year begins this month, Rotblat said moving off campus is a great opportunity for students who know they’re ready for more independence and responsibility.

And for students concerned about making the transition, there’s a new option for the 2009-2010 school year.

The current construction on South Campus’ East Colvin Street will house a privately developed $28 million apartment complex called University Village Apartments. The location will include 2- and 4-bedroom apartments for 432 upperclassmen. Freshman and sophomores cannot live in the complex due to the university’s two-year on-campus housing requirement.

SU does not own this housing. The private developer, Allen and O’Hara Development Co., is leasing the land from the university – meaning students pay rent to the private company.

David Braden, a regional director for Allen and O’Hara, estimated rent will cost students approximately $1,000 a month. This includes utilities, cable, Internet, heating and parking. The complex will have 311 parking spaces, Braden said. He’s in charge of this property, as well as others at the University of Louisville and the University of Cincinnati.

The two-bedroom apartments have two bathrooms, and the four-bedroom apartments have four bathrooms. Each apartment also has a living room, kitchen and washing machine and dryer.

The entire complex includes five four-story apartment buildings and a one-story clubhouse with a movie theater, game room, tanning salon, study room and fitness area.

Eric Beattie, director of SU’s Office of Campus Planning, Design and Construction, said this project – which broke ground last month – has been an opportunity for his department to see how a private developer works.

‘The timing is different – they move very quickly,’ Beattie said. ‘And in this instance, the developer owns and operates the entire facility. They’re responsible for hiring their own people – maintenance, engineers, designers, builders, people to manage the building.’

Beattie said there were minor issues that had to be worked out to comply with university construction standards, like the quality of the roof shingles. There are additional concerns that come along with having such a high concentration of students living in housing not owned by the university, he said.

‘The building won’t have the usual student life governance, like RAs and residence directors, to enforce rules,’ Beattie said. ‘And the university still has to work out how much involvement DPS will have.’

Braden, the regional director for the private developer of the complex, agreed that working with the university required a lot of cooperation.

‘We started construction a bit later than we’d hoped, but for the most part, we’ve had an excellent relationship with the university,’ he said.

Allen and O’Hara Development Co. will start accepting housing applications from students in a week.

This is the company’s first property in Syracuse. It owns 71 housing sites at 51 universities in the United States.

shmelike@syr.edu

Published on September 3, 2008 at 12:00 pm