by Amy Borer
Editorial Director
Housing and Residential Life announced to residents this week that housing rates will be increased $50 per semester for the upcoming academic year in each of the individual residence halls.
Housing costs for living in the Oaks Residence Hall will increase from $1,240 to $1,290 per semester, while costs for living in Stu-Han or Brandt will increase from $1,060 to $1,110.
Housing and Residential life has not raised rates since the 1992-93 school year, when rates increased $80 per semester.
The increase is to provide students with basic on-campus and local calling telephone service.
“It’s going to enable us to provide a more extensive phone service in the residence halls so students don’t have to pay start-up costs themselves,” said Helena Gerstenberg, director of housing and residential life.
“When students move into a hall, they will automatically already have a phone service hooked up, they will have local calling, they will have on-campus calling and they will have 911 service,” said Loretta Rahmani, associate dean for student services.
With the current phone situation, residents must pay a start-up fee in order to have telephone service in their rooms and must also pay an additional monthly fee for basic service. Under the new plan, the only cost to students would be an optional fee for long distance service and campus voice mail.
“A student will be able to go through an application process to get voice mail and a PIN [Personal Identification Number] for long distance calling and the bonus pack, which would include other features like speed dialing and call waiting,” said Gerstenberg.
In the past years, the start-up fee has been $39.75 per student for a student sharing a line with a roommate and if a student had his own line, the fee was $75.
The University started its phone service in 1992 in the residence halls to provide security to all students.
“With that [phone security system] came the advantage of students having a phone system that was more easily accessible and that all students had,” said Gerstenberg.
Rahmani added that another impetus for starting the phone system was the results of a survey of students in which they expressed a great deal of interest in having phones in their rooms.
The University was reluctant to make the increase, but also noted that ULV housing costs are lower than most schools.
“In comparative schools, we are either the lowest or the next to lowest housing rates and we pride ourselves on being the lowest,” said Rahmani. “We don’t want to raise rates.”
“We are always real hesitant to raise our housing rates because we know the financial situation of the students who come to La Verne and that money plays a big factor in what they can or can’t do,” said Gerstenberg. “I always encourage students that cost doesn’t always mean money. Sometimes living on campus costs less because of the time and energy they expend driving on the road and the stress that adds.”
