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About 200 University of Maine students will be forced to move from their current campus residences and make other housing plans for next fall when York Village is shut down at the end of this semester.
No definite plans have been made to renovate the more than 25-year-old buildings.
Residents of York Village were notified by letters last April of the plan to close down the campus apartments because of disrepair and cost-related issues, according to Andrew Matthews, director of Housing Services.
York Village has experienced problems for a while, some serious and others merely an annoyance to residents.
“Things are supposed to get fixed every summer, some things do, some don’t,” Assistant Village Coordinator Alex Arroyo said.
Problems residents have experienced include hot showers only lasting 10 to 15 minutes, waiting about a half hour for more hot water, holes in the walls and the parking lots being plowed last on campus, according to Arroyo.
“It’s little things here and there, but there have not been any major complaints,” he said. “If anyone has any big problems with their apartment, obviously I’m the first person to find out about it because that’s my job.”
York Village is submerged in pressing issues, such as the buildings’ issue of longevity.
“The buildings were built with a family in mind as opposed to six kids taking showers, etc.,” Matthews said.
“They were not built for long-term use.”
Ventilation also has been a problem for York Village residents. Sometimes too much moisture is contained within the buildings, primarily in the bathrooms, and it then gets between tiles and creates rotting. Part of the moisture is let in through sills on the bottoms of the buildings, on the outside of the apartment where the siding touches the ground, according to Matthews.
The buildings are heated electrically, which is very expensive anywhere, but especially on a college campus, Matthews said.
“This is inefficient and not the most cost-effective way of heating buildings,” he said.
“As far as I know, they’re closing York Village because of the heat because it costs too much money to run,” Arroyo said. “It’s not a dangerous living situation — it’s more in terms of cost.”
Included in the expensive costs of running York Village is the difficulty of filling apartmens in their existing physical state.
Currently, York Village is 67 percent occupied, compared to DTAV’s occupancy of 90 percent, according to Matthews.
Other problems involve the outside of the buildings needing to be painted, even though they have been repainted several times in the past.
However, Matthews believes renovations could be feasible if done similarly to Oak Hall and Hancock Hall.
“What we’d like to do is make renovations so that residents see a new and clean apartment,” he said.
Maintenance and cleaning of the seven buildings, which house 35 apartments, also has been complicated and more expensive than is necessary.
“That might just be because they’re old, but it’s been very difficult,” he said.
Although it’s in need of repairs, Arroyo feels York Village is a good place to live on campus.
“It’s a different lifestyle,” Matthews said. “You get more independence. Here you get a better, but not perfect, view of what it’s like to be in the real world. Obviously you’re still on campus but you do get a better perspective of what it is to be independent.”
About 200 residents will be in search of housing this spring when room sign-ups begin for the fall. Just as previous Balentine residents were forced to move from their dorm and were given a first choice to moving into the New Resident Complex near DTAV, York Village residents will be given a similar option, Matthews said.
“Usually, if someone’s been displaced, we try to let them get a jump on another spot, but not to the detriment of other students,” Matthews said.
Present York Village residents will be permitted first choice in housing options during room sign-ups in early April. This includes access to available DTAV and NRC rooms.
As campus apartment residency is decided by a seniority system according to the number of credits a student has earned, Housing Services intends to provide current York Village residents with more credit hours to give them an advantage in occupying these facilities, according to Matthews.
If this option does not work for York Village residents, Arroyo predicts many will move off campus.
“Most people have gotten used to the village style. Once you move into an apartment, even if it’s on campus, it’s kind of hard to go back to the dorms,” he said.
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