SVSU’s housing policy has been an issue for many students for many years, and with the class of 2025 being the largest graduating class in history, it has only become harder to manage as unprecedented numbers of students now require housing. University policy makes managing this task much more difficult than it needs to be by setting restrictive rules on freshmen.
They tell incoming freshmen who live on campus that they require a meal plan, which not every student can afford. Meal plans for freshmen often include a set amount of declining balance and a certain number of meal swipes into the dining hall per week. While this does help students without transportation, it is limiting for students who can’t pay for such plans all at once.
Furthermore, there is a lack of diverse meal plans for students. When looking at the meal plans the school offers, one may find 3 plans, each costing $2,475. Freshmen living on campus can choose between: unlimited meals per week + $250 declining balance, 14 meals per week + $350 declining balance, or 11 meals per week + $450 declining balance.
The most disturbing part of these lackluster choices for on-campus dining is that there really is no choice at all. If you are an incoming freshman resident, you are required to have one of these three plans, with no exceptions or regard for how you pay for them. To have one of these plans, one must pay before the tuition deadline or add the bill to a payment plan.
It isn’t just the forced meal plans and lack of choices that make SVSU housing policy bad. All freshmen students who plan to live on campus must live in one of four living areas: MJB, Living Center South, Living Center Southwest, and First Year Suites.
In the Living Centers, there are often complaints about multiple people being squeezed into one room since SVSU doesn’t allow freshmen to transfer students to or live in any of the University Village or Pine Grove apartments. This has proven to be a problem for many students who wish to have some sense of personal space in their academic career, and even goes as far as to interrupt the hygiene and scholarship of many students who are forced to cram.
One student, David Collier, a freshman here at SVSU, describes his experience as a “lottery.” When seeking to move rooms due to space constraints, they simply put him on a list and told him to wait. When Collier asked if it was possible to move into an open space in a University Village dorm, the Office of Housing told him that it was impossible, as he is a freshman.
Collier’s story is just one of many, though, as it appears to be a universal experience for freshmen at SVSU. Samuel Ortiz, a third-year student, has had a similar experience. In an interview with Ortiz, he used the exact same word to describe his issues, describing the application process for housing as a “lottery.”
Ortiz describes his sophomore year, where he spent three weeks living out of his car in the fall semester because he was one day late for the application. “I paid the $200 application fee one day after it was due. [Three weeks] later, I’m living out of my car and couch hopping just to get to class.”
While Ortiz was indeed late for the application, it was simply by one day. His tardiness should not equal three weeks of living out of a car, while his name slowly moves up a list while other students are shuffled around to new homes because they don’t like their roommates or have less privacy than they thought they would.
The student body must not sit idly by while housing policy creates an infuriating situation for more students, especially those who share a similar story to Collier or Ortiz. If freshmen like Collier were allowed to move to other dorms, late applicants like Ortiz wouldn’t have to be homeless. Maybe it is time we petition for policy change to show housing how upset the student body is.
Abdullah Farooqui 
Zachary McEvoy 
Riley Hurley