A2 Community Culture
A university housing shortage threatens to turn student family housing into a microcosm of A2 conflicts, as grad students and undergrads spar over which group is more unpleasant to live around. When we were undergrads, our administration did something like this with single grad student housing, and the only objection we can recall was from grad students unhappy that they would have to compete for fewer spaces, not that they would have to live in the same building as undergrads. So even though it sounds flaky, we have to wonder if the culture of A2 has created an atmosphere where people are terrified to share living spaces with others who aren’t just like them. Parallels between the two situations may be a bit tenuous, because single grad students are in some ways closer to single undergrads than their married colleagues. But continually hearing how noisy and messy students (usually meaning undergrads) are has to make some kind of impression, both on the grad students who want to avoid them and the undergrads themselves, who probably want to steer clear of the tongue-waggers.
Aw, hey. I promise that if some of you grads get stuck living with me, I’ll refrain from all the ‘wild and wacky’ undergrad things I get up to. The drunken bacchanals will be kept to a respectful minimum, and I’d let you have carte blanche when it came to kicking out frat boys who broke into your rooms.
(Who am I kidding? My idea of fun is spending four hours sitting in the Natural History museum drawing stuffed wolverines on a Saturday afternoon.)
posted by art student on July 20th, 2004 at 7:44 pm eI’d say your atmosphere of terror is a bit of stretch. I live in an apartment building in town with 1 grad student, 1 old school townie/hippie, 1 low income assisted living resident, 2 undergrad roomies, 1 tweaked out ex raver and myself, the local loafer that works 40 hours a week. We all get along fine for the most part.
posted by Bez on July 20th, 2004 at 7:48 pm eThe complaint is that housing space for student families (grad and undergrad) is being cut in half by the university. Furthermore, this move is also cutting into the vibrant family-centered community in Northwoods 1-5.
posted by Andrew on July 20th, 2004 at 8:01 pm eYeah, I’m probably overdramatizing a bit.
I realize that both sides have some valid concerns, especially about the overall lack of housing on this campus, but the anti-undergrad comments did make me think a bit. And, I just read it again - quiet hours at 9? Yikes!
posted by ann arbor is overrated on July 20th, 2004 at 8:10 pm eThe article makes it sound like they had no control over the size of the Freshman class. Don’t they set quotas or something? You would think they would base those quotas on something like available housing.
posted by Kozzie on July 20th, 2004 at 9:41 pm eKozzie, I think they always expect that a certain percentage of the applicants they accept will decline enrollment, and that this year a rather higher-than-normal number decided to actually attend.
posted by Brandon on July 20th, 2004 at 10:06 pm eYou mean people actually decline to go to U of M? Nah, never…..
Although, that makes sense. When there was a bit of a housing crunch at Eastern, they tripled some people in the dorms. Gah.
posted by Kozzie on July 20th, 2004 at 11:49 pm eWhen I was in law school, I would have been fine living with undergrads, because, frankly, they were much more fun than my fellow grad students, who, for the most part, took themselves and everything around them far too seriously. But I couldn’t even get University housing as a grad student, so my complaints on this subject would also be more along the lines of “it’s hard enough to find grad student housing,” and not so much, “don’t make me live near undergrads!”
posted by Geoff Brown on July 21st, 2004 at 9:46 am eI was the only one in my house who thought it would be cool to live with undergrads. The only problem is that I might start to feel old. I didn’t look at (single) grad housing because I was told that no one lives there unless they’re desperate. Unlike at my undergrad school, where the grad housing is well-maintained, much sought-after and very social.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on July 21st, 2004 at 3:11 pm e