Apartments not for undergrads

It's Friday night and some 6-year-olds are discussing their plans for the weekend. One says hopscotch. Another looks forward to some jump rope. The third plans to download Disney movies off the Internet with the help of her beer-drinking college friends. \nCome again?\nChances are this little tyke lives in University apartments with her parents. Traditionally, it has not been a bad place to live with a child, since the apartments have been occupied by families and older graduate students. But this is changing, since the Division of Residential Programs and Services has opened the apartments to undergraduates age 19 or older to relieve the strain on overcrowded residence halls. About 190 undergraduates now live in campus apartments, and with RPS planning to fully publicize the openings next year, more are on the way. \nThis spells trouble for families with small children. After all, there is a reason most universities have separate housing for married students -- because the residence halls are no place for small children. In a campus apartment, the resident families are going to be relatively quiet and considerate, because they can understand the needs of the family next door -- they're both in the same situation. But a 19-year-old sophomore might not respect the fact she has to turn her music down because the young neighbor's bedtime is 8 p.m. and her parents can't get her to sleep. \nCampus apartments might not be an ideal housing arrangement for the undergraduates involved, either. Most students seek a living arrangement where they will be able to meet the neighbors and make new friends. Undergraduate students might have a hard time socializing with families or older non-traditional or graduate students. That takes away part of the experience of college and is unfair to those undergraduate students.\nThe University isn't required to house every student who requests a place to live on campus. But if IU wants to help the students who overflow the residence halls, a better way is to start an off-campus housing program, such as the one the University of Michigan started when it realized its residence halls were full to bursting. The program does not provide off-campus housing or endorse any landlord or company. It simply provides housing listings through a landlord registration program. This would make it easier for a student to find a home off campus.\nOf course, a program like this wouldn't generate any money for the University, unless there was a listing fee for landlords and subletters. And RPS would probably have to notify students by early summer if the student needed to seek off-campus housing. \nStill, it's better than trying to turn the campus apartments into regular student housing. While it's normal and accepted for students to cause a ruckus in residence halls, families and graduate students have long outgrown that type of behavior. They deserve a place to live that is free from those disturbances. They should be able to work, study and raise their children in peace.\nStaff vote: 8 - 4 - 3\nOnline poll: 34 - 52 - 2