NNEEWWSSMarch 9, 2012 The Critic, Page 8

Sarah AubeCritic Correspondent

While he hates the icy cold drive tocampus from his apartment, LyndonState College senior, Curtis Brown, saysliving off campus is worth it.

Kirstie Venne, LSC junior who cur-rently lives on campus, tried moving offcampus, but came back to the residencehalls after less than a month away becauseshe missed the social interactions.

Out of the 1,429 students at LSC, 775of them live off-campus.

>Having to get into your car when itsfreezing sucks,? says Brown, who haslived off campus for the past two years.>Having to pay for gas to drive to schoolevery day is a big negative too.?

Venne agrees that living on campusmakes life easier, especially when thereare bad weather conditions.

>You don@t even have to have a car,?said Venne. >You don@t have to come backand forth.?

Another aspect that is different liv-ing on campus compared to off-campusis the social interactions.

Venne has lived on campus for thepast three years. She briefly moved intoan apartment at the beginning of hersophomore year before realizing it wasn@tfor her and returned to campus.

>I felt too disconnected from peo-ple,? said Venne, who says that her suitebecame her family during her freshmanyear.

However, independence is one factorthat often causes students to choose tolive in off-campus housing.

>People aren@t doing rounds throughtheir apartments, for sure,? Director ofresidential life, Erin Rossetti, says.

One off-campus LSC junior, AndrewCochran, stayed on campus for his firsttwo years and is now renting an apart-

ment for the first time this year, after get-ting married this past summer.

He says he does not feel that he ismissing on any social interactions by liv-ing off-campus.

>If I want to do something, it@s like athree minute drive, so I@ll just come up,?says Cochran. >I still maintain friendshipswith people.?

Another thing that students mightthink about when making this choice isthe cost of living on-campus versus off-campus.

To have a standard double room inStonehenge costs $5,030 per year. Whendividing that by the nin e months that astudent stays on campus in a year, thecost per month for staying on campus is$559.

This does not include the meal planwhich, for unlimited meals, costs $1,708or $189 per month for the school year.For the cheapest plan, eight meals aweek, students pay $1,581, or $175 permonth.

Brown said that he is definitely sav-ing money by living off-campus, evenwhile taking out loans to cover his rent.He pays $200 a month, splitting theapartment@s $800 rent four ways betweenhim and his three roommates, one ofthem his girlfriend.

>I always take out a refund check formore Bthan tuitionC and I had to take outless of a loan to live off-campus,? saidBrown.

Cochran lives in a one bedroomapartment with his wife, and they pay$700 a month with everything included.This is $350 per month per person.

>It@s certainly more expensive in theshort term,? says Cochran of living off-campus >because you have to take moneyout of pocket right away, but in the longterm it@s much much cheaper because I@mtaking out less loans.?

Cochran says his wife and him payfrom $350 to $400 per month on food,which is similar to what they would payon campus for a meal plan and no extragroceries.

Venne says she finds it easier to justadd her room and board onto her schoolsbills.

The amount of financial aid that astudent receives does not change if theyget an apartment rather than live on cam-pus.

>Financial Aid for a particular stu-dent would be identical regardless ofwhether or not they live on-campus in adorm, or off-campus at a residence sepa-rate from their parents,? said LSC finan-cial aid officer David Martin. >They areconsidered to have the same cost of roomand board calculated into their cost of at-tendance.?

The only time the amount of finan-cial aid awarded to a student would be af-fected by their living situation is if thestudent would be living at home withtheir parents.

Another thing that students whorent apartments might worry about ishaving renter@s insurance.

Renter@s insurance can cover yourproperty in the case of damage or theftas well as provide you with liability insur-ance in case you are responsible for dam-age to the building or people in it.

Brown says he hasn@t bothered withrenters insurance because, >I didn@t wantto pay for it and the house is alreadypretty crappy.?

For the lowest amount of renter@s in-surance you can get, $15,000 propertycoverage and $100,000 liability coverage,it costs an average of $125 per year orabout $10 per month.

THE LAW OF THE LANDLORD Many college students like to drink,

and smoke, and just get plain old rowdy.This causes landlords to be reluctant

to rent to students from Lyndon StateCollege in some cases.

>They tend to not follow the leaseand allow as many friends to crash thereas they want,? says landlord, Aine Baker.>They don@t understand that all thoseextra people cost a lot in water and sewerbills and they do a lot more damage.?

Aine Baker of Northeast KingdomProperty Management manages a dozenbuildings in the Northeast Kingdom, in-cluding buildings in Lyndonville and St.Johnsbury.

Baker says he does rent to collegestudents if their application passes,though often a parent is required to co-sign.

However, he has sometimes hadsome trouble with them. Baker howeversays that he runs into problems withother tenants too, not just college stu-dents.

>They think we don�t have any billsand can afford to take care of every-thing,? says Baker. >They don�t realize wehave a mortgage, taxes, insurance, waterand sewer bills, and repairs.?

Another thing that has to be dealtwith, as a landlord, is evictions.

>If a tenant is late 10 days, we starteviction proceedings with the court,? saysBaker. >When they lose, we take them tosmall claims court and then the judgmentgoes to a collection agency and also goeson their credit report and is in the courtdocuments as an eviction.?

However, if the tenant pays the rentthat is due before the eviction isprocessed, the claims must be dropped.

>It@s not a pretty process for the ten-ant,? says Baker. >Be responsible enoughto follow the contract that you signed andyou won@t have any problems.?

Kelly O'BrienCritic Correspondent

Living with a roommate isn@t some-thing everyone can handle in college, notto mention having two roommates.

Multiple things can affect the dormlife, the biggest being the roommate. Forthe first time in many students@ lives theyhave to share a room with someone else.This means sharing space, schedules, andvery limited privacy. Living on campus atLSC, the options of dorm types are: sin-gle, double, and triple. Most of the fresh-man class is automatically assigned adouble.

Space wise, a single is the smallestand a triple the largest. LSC sophomoreCourtland Hanley said when asked aboutthe benefits of living in a triple room,

>One benefit is a much larger room. Also,you don@t have to bring as many thingsfrom home if you all agree on who bringswhat.? Each room definitely brings itsown benefits.

The single allows he most privacy ofthe three, also there is not sleep scheduleneeding to be followed and not restric-tions of room set up. Jess Curley, LSCfreshman who just recently moved into asingle said, >I really love having my ownprivacy and being able to do what I needwhen I need to do it without having toworry about someone else and theirschedule.?

The double is an experience to livewith someone. They are there for whenyou need a shoulder to cry on or a personto laugh at a joke. >It@s an experience I

think everyone should experience,? saidLSC freshman Erikka Eddy. It offersmore space, if arranged with space inmind. Same works for a triple. However,now sharing a room, respect for one an-other id mandatory. Disrespect a room-mate by either disrupting their schedules

or breaking the contract is where peoplebegin to hate having a roommate.

It@s a lot to get used to, living with aroommate and sharing the limited spacegiven. Some don@t mind it, others switchrooms. Every student will find somewayto survive dorm life.

Get Used To It Or Get Out

Shall We Live Under The Watch of Rossetti?

Photo by Morgan ForesterThe Stonehenge residence halls on campus are not the only option forstudents to live in. There are options available off campus.