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They're old and drafty, but for years, Marcelo Mena and thousands of others in the University of Iowa's family housing complex have called University Apartments home.

"The same swings, the same squirrel and lion. I have pictures of me in 1983," says Mena, 28, as he looks at the playground equipment that entertained him 20 years ago.

The sprawling, more than 30-year-old complexes on Iowa City's west side are about to change, however. And residents in the interconnected, international community fear that once their neighborhood is dismantled, the family-like bonds developed over the years will go with it.

In an attempt to address complaints, UI officials are in the preliminary stages of demolishing the existing buildings at Hawkeye Drive and Hawkeye Court and rebuilding 300 to 350 new units at Hawkeye Court - about half of the existing apartments.

Residents, including undergraduates, graduates and international students, have said the 694 UI-owned family housing units are run down, have poor insulation and are isolated from UI's campus, among about 60 other reported complaints. A total of 190 units are on Hawkeye Drive and 504 are on Hawkeye Court.

To address those complaints, UI officials have said they want to replace the family housing units - the only ones run by UI.

UI Dean of Students Phillip E. Jones has said no plans are final and that demolition dates and cost and rent estimates are not available yet.

"We're trying to find ways to produce quality," Jones said. "(The apartment complex) is inefficient for the basic needs."

To replace all of the units would cost too much, Jones said, because the school aims to update the aging facilities.

Administrators conducted a study of University Apartments - commonly called Hawkeye Apartments - 10 years ago and considered replacing the buildings. They didn't, though, because estimated rent costs would have been higher than what they thought residents could afford.

When the units are demolished, officials said no one will be displaced because the work would occur in the beginning of a contract year, or when a lease would begin.

UI will notify residents one year before the units are demolished and will offer housing on Hawkeye Drive while the school tears down Hawkeye Court apartments. Students with families or dependents will be given highest priority.

There will be enough room for families and international students who need housing, Jones said, because nearly 300 residents are single.

Despite the deficiencies, many residents say the low cost to rent University Apartments has kept them coming back. And many fear the housing market in Iowa City is grim - leaving them little choice for affordable housing options.

"So many students don't have the amount of money to live somewhere else," said Claudia Regojo, a 28-year-old UI graduate student who has lived at Hawkeye Drive for almost two years.

Tom and Susan Scheck, who now live in Coralville, had to move out of their Hawkeye Court home seven months ago because they had a fifth child. Iowa City fire code says only six people can reside in a two-bedroom Hawkeye Court apartment.

While cramming six people in their 630-square-foot apartment, they were able to watch every Hawkeye football game with the school's cable, which was included in monthly rent. This year, they have watched three.

Now, they pay about $1,200 a month for 2,000 square feet and utilities. When they lived at Hawkeye Court, they paid about $500 for rent and utilities.

"We were grateful for Hawkeye Court, and we wanted to stay because it would've been cost-effective with an extra kid," said Tom Scheck, 39.

"We were jam-packed in there - we were like sardines. But our boys, they loved it. They want to move back," he said.University Apartments manager Helen Baker said a resident survey showed affordable rent was the top reason people continue to live in the Hawkeye units. At Hawkeye Court, rent for a one-bedroom unit is $400 a month; a two-bedroom unit is $445 a month. At Hawkeye Drive, which are all two-bedroom units, rent is $535 a month. Water, sewer, trash, phone and cable are included in Hawkeye Court rent. Heat and water are included in Hawkeye Drive rent.

Despite what many Hawkeye Apartment complex residents think, local landlords said housing availability and affordability is on the rise.

SouthGate property manager Steve Dolezal said he thinks students might not have problems finding housing.

"I think it's more affordable now than it has been in years past due to the fact that units last year now haven't been leased," he said.

Construction began in July for a four-building, off-campus, private student housing community on about 23 acres north of Highway 1 and west of Riverside Drive. Callaway Development Corp., a San Antonio-based organization, aims to build about 201 housing units, totaling about 560 bedrooms. The project includes underground parking, a clubhouse, workout facilities, basketball courts, study rooms and a computer lab. Construction is slated to be complete by next fall.

"I don't know what's going to happen down the road, but what I can tell you is that developers look at what a community needs and try to provide it," said Rita Marcus, president of the Iowa City Area Association of Realtors.

Strapped in backpacks and winter clothing, children of all races and backgrounds line up waiting for school buses. Regojo said she smiles when she hears the children learning about each other's cultures while they speak in their native tongues.

On warmer days, residents from Turkey, Chile, Bolivia, Spain and South Africa gather to play soccer at a field near Hawkeye Court apartments. Mena said the games are a "cultural experience."

If forced to move, residents say UI could lose its international population - what some residents call the face of research for the university.

Ori Sivan, 27, a Hawkeye Drive resident, thinks UI needs to maintain the number of family housing units to be competitive with other schools. He calls it a marketing strategy.

"It threatens the international community and the quality of graduate students," said Sivan, an Israeli and UI undergraduate student.

The University of Michigan offers 1,483 family housing units. School officials say 50 to 70 percent of the residents are international students.

"It is a big draw" for international students, said Sheryl Decoster, Michigan's family housing adviser.

Paul N. Evans, director of University Housing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said while choosing the right school is most important, housing might sway a student's decision. Wisconsin has 1,200 family housing units.

UI's neighboring regent university, Iowa State University, has improved its family housing units in the past five years.

The school has a total of 760 family housing units; 88 percent are occupied, said John Shertzer, coordinator for Residence Life for Leadership Development at Iowa State University.

"We think it's a draw for students," he said. "If they have a family, they obviously have living needs more than the traditional student."

Chenita Smiley has thought about moving out of her Hawkeye Court apartment, a place she has lived for almost three years. But her support system of neighbors kept her from leaving. She likens those neighbors to family.

A small amount of traffic drives through the complex, which has one place to enter and exit. Neighbors baby-sit each other's children and have social gatherings, like getting together on a Friday night to watch a movie. The community also has a "neighborhood watch." Smiley is the captain of her court.

The different cultures also help the language development of children growing up there, said Brandi Heacock, a UI undergraduate and Hawkeye Court resident.

Her daughter, 3-year-old Briona, says "driving in the car" in Russian, a phrase she learned from talking with international friends in the community.

"She's learned three to four languages just by hanging out with kids," said Heacock, 21.

While Ahmed Diallo, 29, says he has some complaints about the housing units - his apartment is too cold, buses are late, laundry machines are only at Hawkeye Drive - the Burkina Faso native thinks rebuilding half of the units would be hurtful to the community.

"It would be sad to break it down," said Diallo, who has lived at Hawkeye Court for three years, adding that housing needs to be available for low-income families.

Mena, a UI graduate student, is not complaining. He does not want UI to tear down Hawkeye Drive apartments, which he thinks are in good shape.

If he had to move, the Chile native said he does not know where he and his wife, Loreto Stambuk, 27, would go.

"This is home to us," said Mena, who has lived at Hawkeye Drive, for seven years, including part of his childhood.

He thinks the school should rebuild the same number of family housing units with energy-efficient construction and offer recycling.

If they improve the apartments too much, Claire Diallo, 24, who is married to Ahmed, thinks they would not be affordable.

"Part of their claim is packing people in," said the Hawkeye Court resident and UI law student.

Navdeep Sidhu, 33, also thinks UI should rebuild the same number of units, even if the school has to build on land elsewhere.

The Hawkeye Court resident, a UI graduate student and native of India, was part of a University Apartments resident committee that presented 60 to 70 complaints to UI last March. The list sought things such as international television stations and better heating - not demolition and reconstruction.

The Daily Iowan reported on October 29 that UI administrators have unveiled a tentative project to build new apartments to replace the existing Hawkeye Court apartments, located on Iowa City's west side and housing 700 units. In March 2003, residents of Hawkeye Court--whose residents are primarily graduate students -- voiced myriad quality-of-life issues with the residences to Maggie Van Oel, Director of Resident Services for the UI

While the proposed plan would vastly improve upon the quality of apartments for Hawkeye Court residents, the proposed plan reduces the number of apartments to 300-350 units, leaving only around half the spaces available to residents now. Dean Phillip Jones said that students with dependents and families would be given preferential treatment to independent students in securing a unit in the new facilities. Further meetings with students and residents will be held in the coming years to discuss the proposed plans.

SO THE PLAN, tentatively, is to rebuild Hawkeye Court apartments, and raze Hawkeye Drive apartments entirely. Good: The complexes were built cheaply 40 years ago, and so they have aged poorly -- and show it. The university should house its lower-income students capably and comfortably; currently, it doesn't. By redoing the complexes, the goal is to build "sound, sturdy housing with some amenities," as Vice President for Student Services Phillip Jones tod me.

Which is exactly as it should be -- but the plan cuts the number of units from 694 to 300-350. While this would cover current demand from student families, 47 percent of residents, it doesn't cover demand from single students. Also, it doesn't make sense to construct only at the level of current demand. Would anyone really expect high demand for a place with rampant insect infestations, poor heat control, lack of insulation, etc., etc., etc., and (as yet) no sidewalks?

Those issues should be resolved with new buildings, and demand should rise. There are probably student families with tight finances who currently have arranged other housing (say, in North Liberty, West Branch, etc.), who would jump at the chance to live in new university complexes.

Cutting the number of units in half will also shut out other groups who deserve the economic access to the university that the apartments provide -- especially nontraditional and international students. International students, based on a voluntary exit survey, make up approximately 50 percent of residents at University Apartments. Some of them are families, but those who aren't should have some chance at the new complexes.

Why? Because they're a large part of the one overwhelmingly positive thing Hawkeye Court and Drive have going for them right now: their residents. My friend, who lives in Hawkeye Court with her daughter, made up a faux-Ledge with some of her neighbors. It's titled "You Know You Live In Hawkeye Court When..." and includes "your neighbors say they can hook you up, and the mean they can get you international phone cards" as well as " your 4-year-old can say 'push me higher!" on the swing in four different languages. That kind of atmosphere should be encouraged.

The campus master plan calls for new construction to be sympathetic with the established feel of the surroundings. So the new Hawkeye Court should hold more than the family demand but not be high-rises -- say, make the new buildings about as tall as the Hawkeye Hall of Fame (but prettier). And there should be gathering areas, too. And an ITC. Maybe a convenience store and definitely sidewalks.

I also think there should be a sliding scale for rent, though Jones told me flat out this was not a possibility. I don't understand why -- there's surely a way to charge more for those who are more able to pay and still have their rent be lower than Iowa City's inflated market price. The university doesn't receive state allocations for housing, and so University Apartments (and separately, the residence halls) have to be self-sufficient and in rebuilding have to "build what we can afford," as Jones told me. I think graduated rents could boost that ability.

There are rumors that the new complexes might be subsidized through other university funds, but when I asked Maggie Van Oel, the director of Residence Services, about it, she said, "I don't know anything about other university funds. We don't get a dime from anybody. My guess is, that'd be a hard row to plow." When I asked Jones about it, he said he wasn't in a position to elucidate it. Doug True, the vice president for Finances, didn't return my calls.

My final concern is the most cynical, but I have to bring it up. Van Oel told me that "the dilemma of whether to replace or not and how to replace has been around for the last 10 to 12 years." Twice in the last six years, consultants have been hired. And as a result? The apartments have gotten older. No rebuilding, no renovations. I understand that's likely because of the funding concerns I just raised, and the whens, whats, and hows still unresolved even in this plan. There hasn't even yet been a feasibility study done.

Students living in University of Iowa-owned apartments at Hawkeye Drive and Hawkeye Court have met with school administrators and protested at Iowa state Board of Regents meetings calling for better living conditions.

Leaky ceilings in the spring, mold and condensation in the winter and feelings of isolation from campus are just a few of their concerns.

UI's latest plan to build new apartments might address those problems. However, the president of a committee established to voice apartment residents' concerns is not sure the plan will work.

The school is in the preliminary stages of plans for a new 300- to 350-unit apartment complex at Hawkeye Court, said Phillip E. Jones, UI vice president for student services.

Graduate and international students, as well as students with families, live in the Hawkeye Court and Hawkeye Drive complexes, filling a total of 700 apartments.

Both complexes will be torn down and half will be replaced with a new complex to be built at Hawkeye Court. Jones said no plans are final and no demolition dates or cost estimates are available.

While the plan could be seen as a positive step forward, some residents are leery of UI's idea.

"In terms of planning, it's definitely good news," said Jake Wedemeyer, UI graduate student and president of University Apartments Residents Action Committee. "I'm not sure whether or not this will satisfy the problem or solve anything, especially if the university has to kick people out of the apartments."

Wedemeyer, who has lived in the apartments the past three years, said he also is concerned about the cost of rent and the number of apartments built.

In June, regents accepted a report from the residents committee, which formed in March in response to annual rent increases, required cable and needed improvements to things such as poor insulation.

The report listed 60 to 70 complaints about the apartments and four keys issues: keeping rent low, improving transportation to campus, improving apartment and grounds conditions and making cable TV and high-speed Internet access optional.

Five committee members also protested at the regents meeting in May and presented the board with a petition that challenged annual rent increases, shoddy apartments and safety concerns.

UI officials conducted a study of the Hawkeye apartments 10 years ago, Jones said, and considered replacing the apartments, the cost involved and how much rent UI would charge.

"The reasons we did not go forward were because costs for rent were higher than what we believe people could afford," Jones said.

UI will notify residents a year before the apartments will be demolished, Jones said, and will offer housing in Hawkeye Drive to students with families while UI tears down Hawkeye Court apartments. Students with families or dependents are considered highest priority, Jones said.

No one will be displaced, Jones said, because the demolition would happen in the beginning of a contract year, or when a lease would begin.

Answering the call to improve the condition of the university apartments, UI administrators have devised preliminary steps for a plan to build new apartments - at the cost of reducing the number of available low-income housing units.

The tentative project, unveiled by Phillip Jones, the university's vice president for Student Services, calls for the replacement of the Hawkeye Court apartments with a new complex and the elimination of the Hawkeye Drive apartments.

The details include moving all Hawkeye residents to the Hawkeye Drive units, tearing down Hawkeye Court, and building a new complex on that site. Residents would then be moved into the new building. The Hawkeye Drive complex would then be torn down, and the land would be put to use by Recreational Services. Jones said the open area would likely be used for recreation fields for students, but that it was part of a "longer-range project."

The two apartment complexes have approximately 700 units; the new complex would have 300-350. While there would be only around half the number of available spaces, Jones said, the need for housing for university students with families and dependents has gone down in recent years, but it will be met.

He added that students with families and dependents would be given access to the new university apartments before independent students with the intent to provide accessible housing to the university, not "luxury housing."

Jake Wedemeyer, the president of the University Apartments Residents' Action Committee, said he was initially pleased with the preliminary strategy because it "was a great thing that there was movement" in addressing the poor condition of the university apartments.

After several of the apartment residents voiced concern over the shrinking amount of low-income housing, Wedemeyer said the plan was more of a "mixed blessing" because while the facilities would be newer, there would be fewer spaces.

"There's already a shortage of low-income housing in Iowa City," he said.

People who would be removed from the university apartments would have to find another means for housing, he added.

"We intend to address that population with our residence-hall program," Jones said.

UI Student Government President Nate Green said he was glad that the university was looking for a long-term plan to replace the current buildings.

"I certainly don't think it's a perfect plan," he said, adding that the prospect of independent students living in residence halls would be acceptable if there were enough available space.

Jones did not have a time frame for when the plan to replace the apartments would be completed, nor was he able to estimate the cost. He did say that input from students would go into the planning, along with that of university administrators and the state Board of Regents.

E-mail DI reporter Matthew Moss at:

matthew-moss@uiowa.edu

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As UI students grapple with another round of tuition hikes, the UI president's mansion renovation project seems excessive. Of the $2.9 million project, approximately $1.2 million will come from university funds; the rest will be raised by the UI Foundation. Families living in student housing have to deal with deteriorating facilities and invading critters; freshmen are shoehorned into swelling classes because of university-wide budget cuts. Seeing so much money poured into renovating one building sends the wrong message to students (and faculty, for that matter), who aren't likely to spend any time in the mansion or see any direct benefit of the project.
The project is updating nearly every aspect of the Church Street building, which was built in 1908. Nine contractors are working on restoring the 95-year-old structure. Working with cloth-insulated wires, 1908 plumbing, and walls made of slats plaster (not dry-wall) is expensive. Updating those things, plus restoring masonry and woodwork, will end up running a price tag comparable to building six or seven new homes. However, it isn't the cost that's the issue - it's the timing.
The president's mansion has stood the test of time well, but lumping these updates and improvements into one major project has created some "sticker shock" around campus. The masonry restoration and cleaning could have been done anytime in the last few years. The expanded garage doesn't need to be completed at the same time everything else is. Providing regular repairs and refurbishment is more cost-effective than a major remodeling project.
Because some of the plumbing dates back to the last time the Cubs won the World Series, it should have been replaced decades ago. Obviously, these renovations need to be made at some point, but they didn't need to be put off.
The mansion serves everyone on campus as an ambassadorial venue. Fund-raising functions can be held there, and in the end, the improvements may help the foundation raise the rest of the approximately $1.7 million cost of the project. During a time of budget crises, however, the project understandably draws fire from much of the university community. Half of the money allotted toward it would go a long way to improve families' living conditions at Hawkeye Court apartments. While such a move may not pay for itself, far more people's living conditions would improve than from restoring one already decadent mansion.

UI moves to remedy Hawkeye complaints

UI officials outlined actions that the university will take to correct complaints about university housing on Hawkeye Drive and Hawkeye Court in a response mandated by the state Board of Regents.

The regents ordered the university to "rectify the issues within the budget constraints available" after the University Apartments Residents Action Committee presented a petition outlining more than 60 complaints at the board's May meeting. The main areas of concern include maintaining low monthly rents, improvements in apartment conditions, and optional services such as cable TV, high-speed Internet, and calling plans.

Over the past 10 years, the university has attempted to find affordable solutions to the problems in the Hawkeye complexes, encountering difficulties when considering what is affordable for students with families and dependent children, the response states. The university has also been hesitant to make some improvements in case there is a plan to build a new facility.

"Its plan now, which is no plan, leaves the current residents in the apartments in a state of limbo and allows the university to justify not making improvements," said Jacob Wedemeyer, the head of the residents' committee.

The university acknowledged that poor materials used to build the apartments in the 1960s are deteriorating, creating a need to improve apartment conditions. Therefore, the school has budgeted an additional $176,645 for fiscal 2003 for roof and canopy replacement at Hawkeye Court, parking lot maintenance at Hawkeye Drive, and improvements to the main phone lines at both complexes.

The university noted in its response that rent increases at the apartment complexes over the past 10 years have averaged 4.55 percent - a rate officials said is necessary as operating costs increase. In comparison, residence-hall room and board has increased at an average of 5.75 percent over the same time period. Utilities and services also included in the monthly rent for the University Apartments cost a minimum of $75-$100 per month off-campus.

"Comparing [the University Apartments] with the outside market is a false comparison," Wedemeyer said. "The university should view this as providing a service."

The UI has drafted plans for a sidewalk to be completed this year for $150,000, which will be funded by the Department of Residence Services' budget, said Phillip Jones, the vice president for Student Services.

"There hasn't been a sidewalk here in 40 years," said Wedemeyer, who has lived in the University Apartments for three years. "You can see the dirt path that all the residents have created."

In response to technology complaints, current residents will be asked if they are willing to pay the additional costs to bring the fiber-optic lines for high-speed Internet access - an option rejected by previous tenants.

The large percentage of international-community tenants in the apartments have been advised by Residence Services to use either dial-around numbers or pre-paid phone cards to lower the cost of international phone calls. The university is required to provide its international long-distance connections through the Iowa Communications Network, which charges higher rates than most other carriers.

"There is a residential phone line available, but we are forced to use a business phone connection, which costs us more whether or not we have a card," said Navdeep Sidhu, a current resident of Hawkeye Court and member of the residents' group.

The university is also working on negotiations with Mediacom to offer international students international television stations.

E-mail DI reporter Stacey Rossman at:

stacey-rossman@uiowa.edu

The news report "Students voice housing concerns" (Press Citizen, May 23, 2003) has misattributed to me comments on technology, high-speed computer lab, transportation, basic needs and better treatment that might have been made by someone else on the occasion of the Iowa State Board of Regents meeting the previous day. I made none of those comments. One of my major concerns was that the Hawkeye Court University Apartments, despite being a major family housing facility for some 40 years, and in contrast with the adjoining residential parts of the city, have no sidewalks, placing children and the disabled especially at risk. I saw a child get almost hit by a car months ago and brought the matter to the attention of a UI office at that time, asking for sidewalks to be built in and around the facility. A wheelchair-using resident and children have also faced the brunt of an inefficient heating system that heats near the ceiling, leaving a cold layer near the floor even when it is working at full capacity in winters.

On the one point I did make that was mentioned in the report, I have been misquoted. I do not have to pay between 50 and 100 percent more for phone calls to my family abroad. The rate charged by the default phone service at the UI family housing is 20 times one of the lower rates on the market. I did not say this was a rate imposed by the UI but that we are disallowed to use the most affordable service available on the market because the UI has given monopoly rights to [offer] any alternative phone service to a single company.

American and international residents, and several UI faculty, have also voiced a need for international media, including international TV channels, to be made available at the housing and the UI in general, something which I believe is critical to fostering a better understanding between the American and international communities and amongst the diverse ethnicities at the UI.

A leaky ceiling in the spring and intermittent heat in the winter are a couple of problems University of Iowa graduate student Fida Kahn said he has dealt with the past three years at University Apartments.

"The apartments were built in the 1960s and their living conditions are so miserable,"said Kahn, 32, a native of India [SIC]. "There is no exhaust air or heat. My apartment is always dripping water ... other than that, there is nothing for the children to do out there.

'There are many kids who live out there. I've seen at least one who was nearly hit by a car because there are no sidewalks."

Kahn was one of five members [SIC, 9 members]of the University Apartments Residents Action Committee who protested Thursday at the Iowa state Board of Regents meeting at UI. They presented regents with a petition that challenged annual rent increases, shoddy apartments and safety concerns they allege exist at University Apartments.

The complex, on Hawkeye Drive and Hawkeye Court in west Iowa City, has about 700 rental units primarily inhabited by graduate, non-traditional and international students and their families.

Before and during the regents' meeting Thursday, committee members hoisted signs that read, "$1 million for UI Prez Mansion, how much for Hawkeye Apartments?" and "You raise rent in Hawkeye Apartments, now raise the quality of life."

In 1997, a one-bedroom apartment cost $285 a month. A two-bedroom apartment rented for $336 a month.

At its meeting in April, the regents approved room and board increases for the three regent universities. For fall 2003, a University Apartment dweller will pay $400 a month for a single bedroom and $445 per month for a two-bedroom apartment.

Aside from rent increases, UI graduate student Navdeep Sidhu said the technology and transportation services at University Apartments must be imporoved.

School officials admit problems do exist at University Apartments, but budget constraints have limited the amount of work that can be done.

"They're very old buildings and it would probably be very expensive to replace, " UI spokesman Steve Parrott said. "With the budget situation we're in, we're really between a rock and a hard place."

Sidhu said he has to pay between 50 and 100 percent [SIC, 20 times] more for phone calls to his family in India because of high international phone rates imposed by the university. In addition, he said, there is no high-speed computer lab for the apartment dwellers to use.

"We are just asking for better treatment while we're staying there," Sidhu said. "We're just asking for basic needs."

Regent David Neil recommended UI prepare a report that addresses the issues outlined by the University Apartments committee, which formed in March.

"So we can properly consider it and deal with it and rectify the conditions out there based on our budget conditions," he said.

If you have ever parked your car in the Hawkeye Lot on the western fringes of Iowa City, then you probably know the inconvenience and frustration of taking one of the Cambus Hawkeye routes to retrieve it. Sometimes the trip takes over an hour, waiting and then riding the bus for thirty minutes. Imagine if you experienced that inconvenience and frustration twice each day for your whole college career. This is the daily routine for many of over a thousand residents, mostly internationals, who reside in the 694 apartments in Hawkeye Court and Hawkeye Drive, the two University of Iowa apartment complexes. Transportation is just one complaint of a growing list of over 61 separate grievances compiled by residents. The list ranges from the deteriorating condition of the apartments; annual rent increases ($336/mo for 2-bedroom in 1997 à $445 in 2003); lack of choice in phone, cable, and internet service; disparities in the services offered to the apartments and the rest of the Residence Services; and even emotional concerns like feelings of living in a ghetto, isolated from the rest of the community.

Tenants could stomach these hardships when the rent reflected the quality of life. However, the annual rent increases are rapidly closing the margin between University Apartments and private apartments. During a March 6 meeting between apartment officials and residents to discuss next year’s rent increase, Maggie Van Oel, Director of Residence Services, responded to the barrage of complaints by saying that she had been at the university for thirty-years, had heard it all, and that nothing could be done. Director Van Oel advised residents, “You’re better off getting an apartment in Iowa City or Coralville,” adding later, “I don’t think you want to put a lot of money into these buildings that are falling apart.” Van Oel went on to explain the university’s catch-22: the apartments were built cheap and the older they get, the more they cost to operate; consequently, the university needs to raise the rent to continue operating the deteriorating apartments. Tenants pay more for worse apartments. Director Van Oel said that any improvements would have to come directly out of the pockets of the residents. Her answer to the housing question was for the university to “get out of the business” by “bull-dozing” the current apartment buildings without building any new ones. Rent in new apartments, she said, would be out of the price range of the current residents. The university has no plan for the future other than to keep the apartments "limping along".

Residents wonder how Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa are able to offer more apartment options and amenities at comparable or cheaper rents. ISU recently tore down Pammel Court and built Fredrickson Court, a brand new apartment complex, adjacent to campus, with a computer lab in a community center. Fredrickson Court, Schilleter Village, and University Village, the three ISU apartments, are even serviced by a university-owned grocery store, Pammel Grocery, which carries international foods. The stark contrasts between the apartments of the UI and ISU reflect the priorities the two schools place on housing for graduate students, international students, students with families, and other non-traditional students. While ISU builds new apartments, the UI converts Parklawn (formerly the closest UI apartments to campus) into a freshman dormitory, ill-suited for the needs of first-year students. While ISU provides a soccer field with netted-goals for the residents of their apartments, the UI erects a high fence around the Hawkeye Recreation Fields (immediately adjacent to Hawkeye Court), padlocks the gates, and places a sign that reads, “Trespassers will be prosecuted.”

Supported by COGS/UE Local 896, tenants have formed an action committee to voice their concerns and propose real solutions in response to the university’s poor planning and negative attitude. The ‘University Apartments Residents Action Committee’ is circulating a petition to be sent to the Board of Regents and other university officials, before the proposed rent increase is approved. Despite all of their grievances, residents value the experience of living in University Apartments. “Some aspects of life in Hawkeye Court and Hawkeye Drive are great: the diversity, the children, the playgrounds, prompt visits from maintenance” says Jake Wedemeyer, a married UI graduate student, father of a three-year-old son, and member of the residents committee, “Because we value living here, we want to see it become a better place.”

Letters to the Editor

Hawkeye Court not all bad

The University Apartments Residents Action Committee would like to thank James Baetke and The Daily Iowan for the May 7 story regarding the "dilapidated" state of the Hawkeye Court and Hawkeye Drive apartments. The article did a great job of shedding some light on the almost 70 grievances that residents have documented - 70 reasons that the rent should be lowered next year instead of raised.

We would also like to emphasize the reasons why we do choose to live here. We live here for the low rent, yes, but the other costs of living such as the high energy bills ($150-plus) in winter and summer because of the lack of insulation and the lost time in the daily commute to campus (or the lost time trying to connect to and then staring at a slow-speed Internet connection) make the cost of living here somewhat comparable with private apartments closer to campus (and more expensive than the dorms, where the rent is divided over two residents' budgets instead of one). We also live here because we value the positive aspects of University Apartments. We live here because our neighbors are friendly people. We live here because our children have plenty of green space to play outside with children from around the world. We live here because it's quiet and mostly safe. Thus, because we love the good aspects of the apartments, we are trying to work with the university to improve the bad.

Jacob Wedemeyer
UI graduate student

Hawkeye Drive, Court need immediate fixing

Editorial

College students might refer to their dorm surroundings as squalor, but compared with the miserable conditions at Hawkeye Drive and Hawkeye Court, residence halls look like palaces. That's because the UI has poorly managed the one- and two-bedroom apartments, which squat near the edge of town, far from the construction-friendly heart of campus. Students living at Hawkeye face undesirable and unreasonable accommodations, and they are to be applauded for demanding attention to their plight.

Residents of Hawkeye Drive and Hawkeye Court presented their complaints on Monday to Phillip Jones, the vice president for Student Services, and other university officials, only to learn that many of their needs could not be addressed in the immediate future. Thus, the group of international, graduate, and married students faces little hope and higher rents - which is unacceptable.

Although the university is not allocated state money for housing, it should be ashamed of its slumlord status, renting insect-infested, crumbling apartment complexes, particularly as it touts its commitment to diversity. What kind of commitment encourages international students to attend the UI, only to house them in shoddy, cheaply constructed units that date from the Cold War and remind many of "Soviet-realist" architecture?

UI graduate student Jacob Wedemeyer (brother of DI editorial board member Micah Wedemeyer) started a petition that, quite legitimately, requests "affordable, quality student apartments." Most of the students who live at Hawkeye do so because the Iowa City rental market is very tight and too costly, so their best option is to live in the university's apartments. Yet, when that option results in condemned stairways, dilapidated buildings, and an illegal lack of sidewalks (which Jones said he would address within a month), dedicated students are forced to put up with the UI's lack of responsibility.

When the university can find money to support such ill-fated ventures as Planet X but neglects the very people who contribute to the UI's much-cherished worldliness, the gaping difference in priorities not only slights students living at Hawkeye, it also demonstrates an excessive focus on undergraduate, particularly underage, habits. While the UI cannot control whether 18-year-olds drink, it can affect the Cambus schedules at Hawkeye, the broken thermostats, and the infestations of cockroaches and other pests.

University officials must be aware of the extra-academic aspects of students; first on the list of priorities should be issues that fall under the explicit jurisdiction of the UI, such as the university apartments. When Jones, who lived at the complex 30 years ago, admitted that he experienced the poor conditions of the apartments then, he could no doubt imagine the present squalor. As someone with firsthand knowledge of the conditions at Hawkeye, he should be the prime cheerleader in encouraging the university to remedy the situation.

Hawkeye residents detail substandard living conditions

On the outermost edge of western Iowa City lies a patch of brick apartments home to hundreds of UI students and their families, some of whom contend that they are subjugated to "substandard" living conditions - which, university officials say, may not improve within the next decade.

Concrete staircases crumble under residents' feet, roaches scuttle out from cracks and crevices in the night, and the cinder-block units lack insulation, say many residents of Hawkeye Court and Hawkeye Drive, a set of university apartments erected in 1960 for graduate, married, and international students.

Many seek housing in one of the 694 non-air conditioned units as a feasible alternative to Iowa City's tight housing market, finding the $373 per month rent for a one-bedroom and $425 rent for a two-bedroom unit at Hawkeye Court palatable. Hawkeye Drive's units, all two bedroom, cost $512 per month. Compare that with the cost of a non-air conditioned, double dorm room with no bathroom, which would run about $614 a month, and it's clear why students find the complexes a financial haven.

But in light of a $20 to $27 monthly rent increase next year, residents are calling on UI officials - in particular Phillip Jones, the vice president for Student Services - to address the "unsatisfactory" living conditions.

UI graduate student Jacob Wedemeyer, who has lived at Hawkeye for three years and is head of the University Apartments Residents Action Committee, circulated a petition to residents, Jones, UI President David Skorton, and the state Board of Regents, among others, asking for "affordable, quality student apartments."

The petition demands improvements in apartments and grounds and transportation to campus - which is approximately three miles away. It also calls for rent to remain low and fees for auxiliary services such as cable TV, high-speed Internet, and phone-calling plans to be made optional.

In a meeting Monday with Jones and other university officials, a dozen residents aired a litany of grievances that officials acknowledged exist but cannot be rectified because of budget limitations.

"We're not trying to be slum landlords," Jones said. "Our problem simply comes down to cost. We're trying to find a way to rebuild these apartments."

Jones admitted that the materials used to construct the facilities were cheap and that the apartments are in poor condition, a reality he experienced as a resident of the complex in 1968.

And although he asked Helen Baker, the manager of University Apartments, to address such minor issues as replacing thermostats and stoves, Jones said he could not make any immediate changes to the buildings nor sign two contracts presented to him by residents that would ensure improvements at Hawkeye. Jones said he could not sign the contracts because they were poorly worded.

"There is nothing on the [petition] list that can be done in two years," he said, adding that improvements may take up to 10 years.

State funds are not allocated to fund housing, forcing the university to look elsewhere for money, he said, adding that the university's goal is to rebuild the complexes from the ground up.

The university has been "struggling with this for years," said Maggie Van Oel, the director of Residence Services, adding that the conditions are partly due to how residents keep up the units and the inferior building materials.

Meanwhile, Hawkeye residents say they are living with high humidity problems that lead to condensation and mold, high energy bills, stoves without exhaust fans, faulty appliances, no laundry facilities, and slow modem connections.

One issue - the total absence of sidewalks for children and the handicapped - did garner a promise by Jones to promptly address the problem within a month.

"These facilities blatantly violate Americans with Disability Act regulations," said Samuel Gerbyshak, a Hawkeye resident who was confined to a wheelchair for four months.

UI graduate student Ying Kang, a Hawkeye resident, said she is disgusted by the ants, roaches, and other pests that creep into her small second-story apartment. The conditions have remained the same for her three years in the complex, she said.

"I have bought all kinds of things to kill the insects," she said. "But it is still a huge problem in the neighborhood."

E-mail DI reporter James Baetke at:

james-baetke@uiowa.edu

Support needed for Hawkeye Court

Guest Opinion

The university has taken great pains to improve the appearance and function of its campus. It has spent millions to re-pave sidewalks and streets, install Ethernet in the residence halls, remodel dining facilities for dorm residents, build a new athletics facility, a new honors center, and several other buildings. All of these improvements have taken place in what one might call the "visible campus," the workplace and living quarters of mainstream, traditional students and faculty.

There is a second campus: University Apartments in Hawkeye Court and Hawkeye Drive. These units are so far away from the main campus that they are practically invisible - a condition the university administration appears to be using to justify gross neglect.

Like tuition and fees, rent at university apartments is skyrocketing, while living conditions are deteriorating. The tenants of Hawkeye Drive and Hawkeye Court include international students and/or students with families, students with disabilities, and other low-income residents. These groups of non-traditional students face special financial difficulties. They have a higher cost of living than traditional students, and most have fewer sources of financial aid. Low-cost student housing is vital to these students, who bring so much diversity to the university. Many of the residents would be unable to attend college without affordable housing.

Transportation is a serious problem at University Apartments. Many residents cannot afford their own cars and are at the mercy of Cambus schedules. Residents without cars often feel stranded during breaks and vacations, when Cambus service is reduced. Residents with cars are ineligible for campus parking permits, despite living twice as far from campus as many students who have such permits.

The physical condition of the units and the emotional effect of the institutional outlook of both the units and the grounds are intolerable. The apartments themselves are not insulated, poorly ventilated, and subject to mildew and pests. Drafty doors and windows, as well as bare cinder-block walls, result in astronomical energy bills. Stoves are not accompanied by exhaust fans, frequently resulting in a smoky atmosphere. The bleak units are surrounded by fences, causing what many residents describe as a "rat in a cage" feeling.

In addition, an insufferable monopoly exists over Hawkeye Drive and Hawkeye Court phone lines and cable service. This results in an unnecessarily high phone bill, and a cable bill (included in the rent) for graduate students who rarely watch TV, and it makes high-speed Internet access absolutely impossible to obtain. In order for residents to have greater control over the services they use, the university must let them contract the providers that they choose for the services they want.

Many Hawkeye Court and Hawkeye Drive residents have signed a petition addressing these and other concerns, but greater support is needed. Please write to the university administration voicing your agreement and support for the residents of university housing and outrage at their neglect. The tenants of these apartments add much diversity and academic excellence to this university. It cannot afford to lose them by failing to provide a provide an affordable, safe, and inviting place to live.

University Apartments Residents Action Committee:

Jen Gerbyshak, Jacob Wedemeyer, Alejandra Menchaca, María Ortíz, Xiaohong Shen, Fida Khan, Chaminda Hettige, Sujith Perera, Navdeep Sidhu, Nor Hashida Abd Hamid, Josué Jean-Francois

Supported by COGS UE-Local 896 and the UI Asian American Coalition

DI 03/3/04

Hawkeye residents voice concerns