RPS opens apartments to underclassmen

University apartments -- the name evokes images of older graduate students. Students with families and adults going back to school. The stereotype might be changing.\nFollowing an increase in dorm retention and increasing housing options outside of the University, Residential Programs and Services has opened campus apartments to underclassmen age 19 or older.\nThe move is a response to a lack of space in traditional campus housing and increasing options in Bloomington for families and married or graduate students. \n"Our goal is to strike a balance of meeting the needs of that set of students -- international students, students with families, married students, graduate and undergraduate students -- who want to live in an on-campus apartment setting," said Patrick Connor, executive director of RPS. Connor said he lived in Campus View Apartments this summer. \nLast year, 50 apartments were opened to underclassmen in an unpublicized experiment. Last spring, the Campus Housing Advisory Committee decided to allow RPS to rent to students age 19 or older, but it missed the January period for recontracting. This year, with more openings, they publicized very little. Next year RPS plans to fully market the openings, putting 360-degree views of apartment rooms online. \n"What we're seing is a few more upperclass students stay on campus and in the residence halls," said Pamela Sprong, RPS assistant director. "We had some empty apartments. It opens up more space for a larger freshman class."\nTo reside in the apartments, a person must be a registered IU student, faculty member, full-time staff member or be an approved Ivy Tech State College student. In addition, they must have lived on campus for two semesters.\nAbout 190 undergraduate students live in campus apartments. There are 89 vacant apartments. Some are out of service for maintenance. IU offers about 1,200 apartment units for rent. The rooms range from one-bedroom efficiencies to three-bedroom apartments.\nStudents in campus apartments have benefits like ethernet connections, proximity to campus and the ability to live on campus without having to purchase a meal plan.\nStudents living in campus apartments see the apartments' advantages and disadvantages.\n"You've got your own room, your own place, like home," Sarah Scott, a sophomore, said. "And you don't have to walk five miles down to the bathroom."\nBut Scott said in some ways she misses dorm life. "It's not like the dorms. It's more private," she said. "You don't have the same interaction on the floor."\nCampus apartments were not the first choice of sophomore Mark Shollenberger, who lives in Campus View.\n"We waited too long to find more appealing housing, and this was cheap, so it was the obvious choice," he said. "If we would've had a good start and a fat wallet we probably would've lived somewhere else."\nBut he said the experience hasn't been completely negative. Schollenberger said being close to campus and not having to pay utilities are advantages.\nHis roommate, sophomore William Platt, said he won't return to campus apartments next year. It hasn't been an entirely bad experience, he said, but he's surprised to be living next to families with small children. \n"I was told it was regular student housing," Platt said. "The school bus stops here."\nIf students are interested in a campus apartment, they should contact RPS assignments. Space is available.