By Jennifer Smola, The Columbus Dispatch, and staff reports
COLUMBUS – In its second year requiring sophomores to live on campus, Ohio State University officials say there is enough room for every student who requested to live in a dorm.
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A large number of the 14,000 students who will live in Columbus campus residence halls this autumn semester will be moving into their dorms Saturday, ahead of the start of the new school year on Aug. 22.
They will be moving in between 7:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m., assisted by some 2,000 Official Welcome Leaders (OWLs) who arrived on Thursday to help families unload cars and bring possessions to students’ assigned rooms.
And while the 7,000 sophomores are campus-bound, local leaders hope the surrounding university district community is becoming a place for everyone, too.
As the sophomore rule continues, university district leaders are beginning to see more non-student tenants filling rental properties in the area.
“We’re starting to see a filling-in in some areas of what had been formerly student apartment buildings and apartment areas that are now being occupied by others who are not students, or who are graduated and are staying in the area,” said Doreen Uhas-Sauer, chairwoman of the University Area Commission.
The commission hasn’t conducted any studies or gathered data on just who is living in the area, Uhas-Sauer added, but she suspects that more young adults are filling in the neighborhood partly because of the lower rents there.
“This is all still unfolding these days with us,” she said. “We’re still very affordable. There are people who are looking for housing.”
“Overall, things are going fine,” said Wayne Garland of Buckeye Real Estate, adding that nearly all of his properties are rented for the upcoming school year. “I don’t think the sophomore rule has had that great of an impact.”
Buckeye Real Estate still is renting mostly to students, Garland said, but he hopes the university district will continue to evolve to reflect university neighborhoods in other big cities, with all types of demographic groups living close to one another.