By Cara Gargano

Hate having to swipe into buildings all the time? How about waking up and leaving for fire drills during the middle of the night? If one lives on campus, they must deal with loud neighbors, card swiping and unpredictable fire drills. Even though the University offers a variety of housing for their students, many prefer to live off-campus.

“It makes life easier to live off-campus because then you don’t have to deal with room inspections or fire alarms going off in the middle of the night,” Jennifer Gettlin, a sophomore marketing major, said.

“The appeal of getting our own house represents us getting older therefore we are able to take on more responsibility,” Caitlin Cissne, a sophomore Broadcast Journalism major, said. “Plus we don’t have to worry about public safety, swiping in and out of buildings, or having our guests being signed in.”

Cissne is a student interested in getting a house off-campus for the fall 2005 semester. She started doing research for housing when she got back from winter break.

“It’s better to get a house early to prevent paying the on-campus housing deposit,” Cissne said.

The final list of off-campus housing from the Department of Resident Life comes out on April 15th which is in fact past the due date of the on-campus housing deposit. So if one is not guaranteed a house by March, odds are they will end up paying the $300 non-refundable deposit.

Campus housing consists of approximately 4,000 students who live in 36 residence halls. The University even offers off-campus apartments for graduates, staff, or faculty that is within walking distance of the academic buildings. Even with all of the conveniences of on-campus housing, there are students who wish to live off-campus.

There are a few houses that are available to students within walking distance of the campus and there are more in the surrounding towns of the University. Residential life, however, provides a list of off-campus housing available for students who are interested. Since the housing on campus is not exactly up to par compared to other universities, Residential Life provides a list of affordable housing for the students. In fact, many of the owners that have houses available are from alumni of the University, so they are more understanding to student needs. There are also many Real-Estate Agencies located in or near Hempstead, New York.

“I received a list of housing which was about 60 pages long from Residential Life,” Gettlin said. “After I read the list I went through which ones sounded the most appealing and which ones were the closest to campus and I started calling the landlords right away.”

Off-campus housing average cost a month is about $600-$650 per student. Those prices include utilities on some houses, but most do not. The average cost of living on-campus is about $800 a month therefore the cost of living off-campus is not much more than living on campus, in fact in some cases it is less expensive.

“I do not really deal with too many students to be honest,” realtor Phil Tesoriero of Coach Realtors in Garden City, NY, said. “I haven’t really rented to students in the area but I do occasionally deal with people looking to buy houses in the Uniondale area to rent to University Students. The buyers do not have a bedroom preference but will take anything that can be sub-divided into many different rooms that way the rent value increases.”

The reason why Tesoriero does not have a lot of inquiries from University students is because Residental Life usually takes care of the problem.

Even though the resident halls on-campus are not perfect, some students still prefer living on-campus.

“I actually like living on-campus because then I never have to worry about dealing with paying rent each month or go through the hassle of making my own food because I cannot cook,” sophomore elementary education major Nicole Hazar, said. “The biggest downside to living on campus is when people in the hallways come back drunk and so loud that they wake you up.”

Students have preferences on where they live on-campus.

“I like on-campus housing, especially the suites,” sophomore accounting major Tyler Puitz, said. “I like the idea of off-campus housing and if the rent wasn’t so high I’d probably move off-campus but I think it’s too expensive.”

The traditional college experience attracts students to living on-campus.

“Living on-campus is fun only because you are in close proximity to about four 4,000 of your peers. The actual living conditions however are not what I would consider fantastic. Because of this, living off-campus starts to become a viable option. However, unless you find a great house that isn’t an arm and a leg to rent and is not close to campus, you will have to drive, or make a long walk to class. And anybody that has driven to campus knows that finding parking is not an easy task,” Andrew Domings, a junior psychology major said.

There are students who want to live off-campus in order to live on their own and have their own perks.

“The only reason I want to live off-campus is because I want a dog,” sophomore accounting major James Donaldson said.

Despite not having the convienences that living on-campus provides, one perk is to not having to deal with Public Safety in the comfort of their own home.

“I just rented a six-person house in East Meadow which is relatively affordable,” Samantha Spector, a sophomore print journalism major, said. “I won’t be able to walk to class, but I will be able to have my own house with my own room so it’s worth it.”

Having a house off-campus does allow more freedom, but with freedom comes much responsibility. Whereas if one lives on-campus they do not have to worry about paying monthly bills or having to cook their own meals but no matter where one lives they will most likely have to deal with roommates.

Even though the University offers a variety of housing for students, many prefer to live off-campus.

Even though the University offers a variety of housing for students, many prefer to live off-campus.