Grand Canyon University students have taken over the Roosevelt Point Apartments for the 2014-2015 academic school year due to overbooking of the college’s other three upperclassmen housing options.
GCU has space for 1,964 upperclassman students to live on or near campus. But due to overbooking, nearly 200 upperclassmen students are living in the downtown apartments, located on Fourth and McKinley streets.
“We have 183 students there, so we’re not using all 200 at this point,” said Bob Romantic, in charge of media relations for GCU. “Last year we had 82 beds reserved and this year we extended that because we’ve had so much interest from incoming students to not only attend GCU, but who want to live on campus.”
Romantic said the Roosevelt Point apartment units are “remote housing” under the private university’s policies.
GCU students living in Roosevelt Point endure a 7.3 mile drive to the school campus, which is located at 35th Avenue and Camelback Road. GCU does not provide a transportation service to students living downtown.
Students, like 21-year-old GCU senior Briana Stackpole, living at Roosevelt Point must take public transportation or drive to their classes.
“I drive to school back and forth,” Stackpole said. “I haven’t calculated the cost to drive back and forth yet but I like the distance and I love the location of Roosevelt Point.”
Students living in Roosevelt Point, either by choice or due to overflow, are paying up to twice as much as students living on campus.
The cost to live at off-campus housing in Roosevelt Point can go up to about $3,000 a semester, compared to $1,500-$2,200 a semester for on-campus dormitories, according to GCU’s website.
Romantic said GCU is planning to add four new residence halls to the campus that will hold 3,000 students to keep up with the demand to live on-campus.
According to GCU’s website, the university plans to only use Roosevelt Point for this school year. The university is working on building new apartments closer to campus that will be open in the 2015-2016 school year.
“I believe there was a shortage on their on-campus housing,” said Merissa Vega, leasing manager for Roosevelt Point. “When they contacted us, they were in the process of building a new dorm or apartment community on campus.”
Roosevelt Point housed some GCU students last year, but on a much smaller scale.
“We had a smaller housing lease with GCU last year and the students are just so respectful and we enjoy having them here,” Vega said.
Some of the GCU students have familiarized themselves with the downtown Phoenix area.
“I think my roommates and I are pretty good about being involved,” Stackpole said. “We have done First Friday and we eat at local restaurants, but it’s not easy when you’re stuck in class or busy doing homework.”
GCU student Ryan Usher, 20, said he appreciates the distance and the off-campus life.
“I really like living at RoPo because although it is its own apartment complex, it has all the students from all the other colleges,” Usher said. “So even though it is off-campus and an independent apartment complex, I still feel like I’m in a college environment. It’s really mellow and it’s really nice to have a place off of campus to go home to and be in my own safe environment that I don’t have to feel like I’m at school.”
Usher, an artist, said, “I love the feel of downtown Phoenix. I think it is so awesome. It’s like an emerging art community so I love First Fridays too.”
Contact the reporter at Michelle.Sarantos@asu.edu
