Calvin Offers One More Housing Option to Students

January 25, 2007 == MEDIA ADVISORY

Summary: Calvin College has purchased an apartment complex in Grand Rapids
and plans to make the units available both to its students and to the public.

Contact John Witte at 616-526-6546 or jwitte@calvin.edu
For the full story see
http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2006-07/glen-oaks.htm

Calvin College is adding a new item to the menu of housing options for its
upperclass students.

The college has purchased a 144-unit apartment complex approximately one mile
east of its campus and plans to make it part of its mix of places juniors and
seniors can live.

Glen Oaks East Apartments, which is situated just south of Burton Street and
just east of East Paris, will provide one more good alternative for Calvin
students says Calvin dean of residence life John Witte.

"Many students want the real-world experience of signing leases, controlling
costs through paying their own utilities and deciding on their own number of
roommates," he says. "And off-campus renters also want a good relationship
with their landlord. With Calvin as the owner of the property, students can
trust that the property will be managed well."

Witte notes that students living at Glen Oaks East would feel some separation
from campus physically, and would live in a more real-world neighborhood with
non-student neighbors. But neighbors might also include married students,
recent graduates, Calvin Theological Seminary students or new Calvin faculty.

"And," he says, "students will see some marks of Calvin College, in optional
programming, spiritual growth opportunities, potential Service-Learning
partnerships, and other Calvin-related programs that can and will develop
there."

Calvin plans to make apartments at Glen Oaks East available to its students as
apartments become available. Witte is quick to state that the college will not
force any current lease holders to leave if they do not want to, and will
continue to renew leases and operate Glen Oaks East as an apartment complex
open to the public.

Calvin vice president for student life Shirley Hoogstra says Calvin had been
looking into expanding options for student housing for several years.

"This property immediately looked appealing," she says. "Our on-campus
options are almost full, and new buildings on campus, though part of our
long-term goals, are much more expensive to construct. We place a high value
on students living in intentional community with one another and speculated
that if Calvin was the landlord, some students would consider this option for
their housing, providing a place for a community of students to develop over
time."

Witte says that Calvin has around 1,500 students living off campus, in a wide
variety of settings in the Grand Rapids area.

-end-
Received on Thu Jan 25 13:00:12 2007