Arizona State University is considering the need for additional student housing on its Downtown Phoenix campus after relocating more than 130 students from its downtown residential hall Taylor Place, according to Dean of Students Sharon Smith.
The university is looking at enrollment growth and trends in occupancy to determine how to deal with its overflow of students.
Relocation was optional for certain students and mandatory for others. Students were transferred to leases with Muse in downtown Phoenix and Union Tempe apartments or placed in rooms at the Sheraton Hotel. Students are continuing to pay their agreed upon rate for housing rather than apartment and hotel pricing.
“The University is in the process of evaluating the need for additional housing on the Downtown Phoenix campus to accommodate all students who desire to live with us,” Smith said, via email.
Last year a Downtown Devil analysis of Arizona Board of Regents data found the campus grew nearly 500 percent in 11 years. Last year the campus accounted for 18 percent of all ASU enrollment.
Students were notified of their move shortly before the fall semester was to begin. The ASU Housing department sent out emails to students saying that they were to be moved out of Taylor Place.
Several students alleged confusing phone calls, and said they had no choice but to move.
Gage Starkey, a junior at ASU, received the notification from the department only days before his scheduled move-in date.
Starkey was told through email that he had the opportunity to move to a Tempe apartment. He declined, and later received another message suggesting the relocation again. About two days before his move-in date, he received a phone call from the housing department asking if he had any questions about his relocation to Union Tempe.
“I remember going, ‘Wait, but like, I thought this was optional,’” Starkey said. “He goes, ‘Oh, well, what I have here doesn’t say that.’”
Starkey said he was given several phone numbers to call, but he had a hard time reaching any of them. He said his mother also called for information on the housing situation.
After that, his housing cleared up and he was able to stay in Taylor Place.
Maddison Fitzsimmons, a senior at ASU, also received an email before move-in offering her the option to move to Tempe. She declined, and a week after moving into Taylor Place, Fitzsimmons received another email on Aug. 21, giving her the option to move to the Muse apartments. She alleged it was difficult getting answers about the move.
“I wanted answers to my questions first,” Fitzsimmons said. “Before I got those answers, they were like ‘Here you go, here’s your room.’ I was like, ‘What do you mean? I have questions.’ It was kind of just so much and all at once, too.”
Fitzsimmons moved out of her dorm room into a single room apartment at the Muse the following Friday. She said her meal plan was cancelled, and she had to pay ASU for all the meals she had used in the semester.
Students who were relocated also received a U-Pass for free to commute from their apartments to the Downtown campus. Fitzsimmons, however, said she had to pay for the light rail out of pocket for the first week after moving.
“They didn’t provide transportation for me to move out whatsoever,” Fitzsimmons said. “I had to move out all by myself. I had to figure out how to get everything together. I had to borrow my boss’s car. I had to ask one of my professors if I could have her help, too.”
Kristina Barraza, a senior at ASU, faced similar frustrations as Fitzsimmons. Both students said the rules regarding housing for the Muse were not explicitly outlined for students living there.
Barraza said she was told by Smith that as relocated upperclassmen they would receive a little bit more leniency, but “it wasn’t outlined as to what it was.”
Fitzsimmons said she was concerned for freshman living at the Sheraton.
“That’s insane to me,” Fitzsimmons said. “I can’t imagine as a parent, sending my kids to college thinking they’re going to live in the dorms with somebody supervising them and then having them live in a hotel.”
Smith, through email, said, “Community Assistants, Community Directors and the Assistant Director of Residential Life are available to assist students on site with university resources and services.”
The 2018-2019 Housing License Agreement states, “University Housing reserves the right to change, cancel, or consolidate room assignments at any time due to academic ineligibility, discipline, safety, health, or administrative reasons, or for ASU’s convenience.”
“Now knowing how many different people were relocated, I guess I lucked out just because I kept at it,” Starkey said.
“It’s just frustrating all around,” Barraza said. “I mean we love it (at Muse) … It’s just we were put in a situation and we had to basically figure out how to survive, until we figured it out.”
Contact the reporters at vewahl@asu.edu and ekholdaw@asu.edu
