Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Family housing on the University of Kansas campus came to an end after the last residents moved out of a longtime apartment complex.
The 25-building Stouffer Place apartments closed last week and the university has no long-term plans to offer family housing, The Lawrence Journal-World reported (http://bit.ly/1BXJzdH ). The complex opened in 1957 for married students, and eventually opened to students with children and single graduate students, including many international students. The units were simple but they came with cheap rent and an on-campus location.
Junghee Lee, his wife and two children moved out of their apartment Tuesday on the way to his new job in Hays. They moved into Stouffer Place 12 years ago from South Korea so Lee could pursue a master's degree, moved back to Korea and returned to the campus and Stouffer Place three years ago.
"This is a really wonderful place," Lee said. "I was really sorry to hear this complex is being redeveloped. I think many international students have the same feelings."
Monthly rent last year was $491 for one-bedrooms, $550 for two-bedrooms, $721 for renovated two-bedrooms and $913 for three-bedrooms — and that included utilities, said Kip Grosshaus, associate director of student housing.
Grosshans said residents overwhelmingly cited the complex's cheap rents as the main reason to live there. The aging buildings were no longer useful and the university could not build new ones and offer the same low rates, he said. The number or new apartments at the site will be determined by how much space is left after science buildings are planned, he said.
Ali Rahmati, a doctoral student in physics from Iran who moved out of his one-bedroom apartment Tuesday said he would miss the camaraderie of international students he met there.
"It was comforting," he said. "You're basically around people that are internationals who are basically in the same situation, far from their families."
And former resident Chris Anderson, who lived at the complex with his girlfriend and his son, it provided a community for children. His son attended the university's Hilltop Child Development Center next door and the family did not have to contend with the noise and partying common at other apartment complexes, he said.
Anderson's girlfriend, Lauren Ripple, said the complex offered green space and jungle gyms right outside the buildings.
"There's a park in the front yard," she said. "You don't really find that anywhere else."
___
Information from: Lawrence (Kan.) Journal-World, http://www.ljworld.com
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
