Apartment complex partners with UIndy
By Kim Puckett
Staff Writer
College Crossing at National apartment complex may serve as one option for students looking for an on-campus living style.
The four-story, recently built College Crossing is deemed an approved housing site for UIndy students. The complex houses only students in 52 apartments with two-, three- and four-bedroom options, according to the manager of the building, Binoy Pavagadhi.
More than 4,600 students attend UIndy, and with an on-campus housing capacity of about 1,200, many students will be searching for places to live. Even with the current plans for expansion in the university’s future, immediately available space is limited for students who want to live on campus.
According to Kory Vitangeli, dean of students, the residence halls are currently about 85 students beyond capacity, with residents living in residence hall basements and lounges. She said the apartment complex can accommodate students who want to move off campus but still live in the area.
“When College Crossing was built, one of the hopes was that it would provide close and convenient housing for students that we weren’t able to accommodate in the residence halls,” Vitangeli said.
As a result of College Crossing’s collaboration with the university, students with academic and athletic scholarships or need-based aid covering on-campus living can apply their financial aid to rent costs at the complex. According to Vitangeli, this opportunity is unique.
“No students besides College Crossing residents can take their financial aid off campus,” Vitangeli said.
Although students living at College Crossing at National still receive commuter parking passes and meal plan options, their financial aid assessments are not affected by choosing to live at the complex, according to Vice President for Business and Finance Michael Braughton. Any aid packages or scholarships that are contingent on students living on will still be granted, unlike for other commuter situations.
Braughton worked with the owners of the complex to create a relationship geared to benefit students. After the owners approached Braughton over several years about building student housing, a compromise was finally reached.
“The owners eventually convinced themselves that the demand was high enough to do their own project without any occupancy guarantees from the university,” Braughton said.
The collaboration between the apartment complex and UIndy began with the school providing upperclassmen students’ contact information to the owners for advertisement purposes. Beyond providing this information, the school agreed only to cooperate with the complex, not to guarantee a minimum amount of students that would live there, according to Braughton.
Braughton also said the university has no plans to turn College Crossing into a residence hall or add it as an official part of campus.
In addition to collaborating with College Crossing, the school is working with the city of Indianapolis to have sidewalks built between the school and the apartment complex.
Another facet of the agreement adds the apartment complex’s parking areas to the campus police’s regular patrol route, according to the College Crossing Web site.
UIndy also has a dormitory for upperclassmen students in the planning stages, and hopes to finish it by the fall of 2009. According to Braughton, the plans include more privacy for resident students. Vitangeli also mentioned the new dormitory’s effect on the university’s agreement with College Crossing.
“I don’t know if it [the agreement] will always be this way,” Vitangeli said. “Things may change once we have some more upper-class housing on campus.
