Students hope to find convenient housing for upcoming school year

Every student at IU must make a grown-up decision at some point. For many, the first step is living on their own.

With second semester under way, students who have not already must decide their residence for next school year, and with this search comes enormous stress.

For women who returned to school a week early for recruitment, the search might be something they weren’t expecting.
 
Freshman Katie Montgomery had to wait until after sorority recruitment finished to see if her friends ended up completing the process. She describes the search as
extremely intimidating.

“For my friends that were rushing, the Greek system is clearly laid out for them, but when it comes to housing outside the dorms, resources are not as prevalent,” she said.

One resource, a Housing Fair sponsored by the Indiana Daily Student, takes place Thursday at Alumni Hall in the Indiana Memorial Union.

For about 800 women, the housing search was not even a definite part of their plan. This number consists of women cut from sorority recruitment process, which ended Jan. 11.

Freshman Megan Riley can empathize. After recruitment she found herself without a bid or a place to live next year.

“I initially had to just ask myself, ‘What now?’ after sorority life had been eliminated,” she said. “I needed to find roommates and a location extremely fast.”

Women in her position needed resources to find housing, but they had nowhere to turn. Riley wishes there were more resources available as opposed to driving around the city of Bloomington in hopes of finding something.

Students who only recently started looking for housing might be surprised to find many locations leased already.

Junior Jordan Lender, who has had to go through the process of searching for housing twice, said delaying the process until second semester might help relieve the stress and allow students more time to decide what is right for them, even if there are fewer choices available.

“The entire process should be delayed,” he said. “All the leasing offices rush you into making a decision. If you want to have a house, you have to have roommates and a lease by September.”