By: Stacey Alex

Stacey Alex
Tue, 29 Oct 2019 15:38:42 +0000

I remember how knowing OSU would have family student housing was such a big part of our decision to go to graduate school...and it hurts to think about all the women who don't have this option, and might just not study at all (I was on the fence about it). It is upsetting to think about about the hours we spent in meetings (while pregnant/with a baby/writing a dissertation) with OSU officials about the importance of replacing family student housing...and still there is no official assurance that they will work toward replacing what we once had. Originally there were 400 units and they are still only talking about relocating families in 89 of them after having already demolished quite a few and leaving others vacant. As a land grant institution, OSU has an obligation to do better with affordable housing, especially considering its other efforts toward diversity and inclusion. This disproportionately affects students of color, although I haven't been able to get anyone at OSU to give me the %. It also affects women disproportionately, since we are the ones who are most impacted by the loss of the support for students with families. OSU cannot function without graduate students teaching classes and conducting research and graduate studies should not only be a possibility for those that have the financial privilege to do it without a crushing amount of debt, especially if we actually believe that having diverse perspectives and lived experiences enhances our students' education. We had an OSU explicitly tell us that our concerns weren't that pressing since we make up such a small portion of the student body. It's beyond disappointing. I'm also just disappointed in myself for beliveing that they would do the right thing. The right thing is to roll out a plan that gets us back to 400 affordable units for students with families.