Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

More Housing Available

GU Pulls Deal with Virginian Suites

By Andreas Andrea Hoya Staff Writer

Due to the drop in demand for on-campus housing, all those students whose year of preference was deferred will now be able to obtain on-campus housing, the Office of Housing and Conference Services announced on March 14.

The students no longer have the option to live in the Virginian Suites, the Arlington apartment complex about 35 minutes walking distance from campus with which the university negotiated a deal that would allow 100 Georgetown students to exclusively live on the first three floors. Those floors would be fully staffed with a Residence Life hall director and apartment assistants. According to Executive Director of Facilities and Student Housing Karen Frank, the Virginian Suites would be treated just like any other residence hall.

The Virginian Suites was one of the administration’s answers to the search for housing solutions that was necessitated by the denial of the chosen preference year for the 2000-2001 school year.

According to Frank, only two students chose the Virginian Suites on the Feb. 26 housing selection date; and those students will be offered an apartment or townhouse. Frank said that she does not have an opinion about the fact that only two students chose to live in the additional housing option secured by OHCS.

Those students who were denied their chosen preference year went through a lottery earlier in the week to decide their rank in tomorrow’s selection. While those students who did not choose an on-campus space on Feb. 26 still have a chance to obtain a space tomorrow and during the class of 2003 selection on April 1, Frank said that those students are usually add-ins for five- or six-person apartments or upperclassmen choosing to live with freshmen.

Frank said that those students with preference who do not use it by the class of 2003 selection will lose their preference. “They have until the first of April to use it. Some of those students may come through housing selection later, adding in to apartments. If by April 1, they do not use it, they forfeit their preference year,” she said.

Frank said that the choice of more upperclassmen than usual to live in residence halls on the Feb. 26 selection may be one of the factors that led to around 40 more apartments being available for rising sophomores than last year. She said that the increase of apartments available for sophomores was not because incoming freshmen would be living in upperclassman residence halls next year. Frank did not have the number of upperclassmen choosing to live in residence halls at hand.

The search for housing solutions for graduate students is still in progress according to Frank. “We will continue to look for individual apartments and so forth. I think the needs of the graduate students are different. They generally require more privacy. We will continue to add this to the off-campus housing list,” she said.

“There is a lot of evaluation that we will be doing in order to project for the next year,” Frank said.

The university will not be suffering any legal or financial consequences due to their pull-out of The Virginian Suites deal, and Frank said she hopes that it will not affect the university’s professional relationship with the management. “One would have to assume that they were disappointed,” she said.

Related Stories

 Problems Persist with Housing Shortage (Feb. 18)

 Search Continues For Off-Campus Housing (Feb. 15)

 In Search of Housing Solutions (Feb. 11)

 Lottery Results Leave Students Without Housing (Feb. 8)

 Fewer Choices for GU Housing (Feb. 1)

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