Protecting the Rights of Students who Live Off-campus

With most of the class of 2011 having completed the housing selection process for the 2010-2011 school year, the question of where many of us will be living is still far from answered. Due to the recent (but very much necessary) decision to close Spellman and Conaty Halls The Catholic University of America has been thrown into a housing crunch. More students than at any period during out time at CUA will be forced to move off-campus to cope with the lack of available rooms on campus.

Living off-campus comes with its own unique challenges, paramount amongst them a Brookland neighborhood that is openly hostile to University students in their community. Despite a few justified concerns residents are often nitpicking small issues and singling out students for undue negative attention out of a desire to encourage draconian measures on the part of University administration towards those residents who cannot live on campus due to size constraints. Further compounding these issues is the grotesque lack of representation these individuals enjoy presently in the General Assembly and all of student advocacy.

SAGA must take a proactive stand to assert the rights of CUA students in the Brookland community as the legal residents that they are, in addition to being students at the nearby university. If elected I will create an independent "Off-Campus Housing Association" to provide the representation so desperately needed by off-campus students in confronting the challenges posed by unreasonable community leaders. Furthermore SAGA members should be in attendance at each and every community meeting in order to prevent our students from being turned into political bargaining pieces by the Brookland community when discussing CUA's plans to expand. Last summer while living in the Heights I had the chance to observe these meetings first hand and I truly believe that students must engage with the community at large to improve the perception of CUA students as well as to develop a dialogue capable of heading off small issues before they erupt into ones the University administration becomes involved in.

The problems faced by off-campus residents will continue grow as more of the campus population moves into the Brookland neighborhood and the General Assembly must be committed to improving the present state of relations, thereby improving the quality of life for every student who lives in the surrounding area.