Prospective graduate students turning away from
the University because of the lack of affordable housing
Recently, we have been hearing of many cases of prospective graduate
students turning away from the University of Maryland because
they can't find affordable housing in the area. This has been
happening in departments all over campus. This spring for example, a number
of prospective students in the Computer Science Department chose to accept
other offers. These students openly said they were choosing to go to what
they believed to be lesser schools, because these lesser schools
gave them better financial offers. This isn't just a question
of stipends, it's an issue of affordable housing. Many UMCP graduate students
pay up to 80% of their
post-tax earnings on rent. We certainly think higher stipends would
help this situation, however if these higher stipends don't keep pace
with housing costs, that is not enough.
The Computer Science Department continues to have a high-quality, highly-ranked
program. However, we recently learned that the Computer Science's
national ranking just slipped from 11th place to 12th. (See
U.S. News and World Report.) We can't know for sure all the reasons
for this, however we believe there is a connection between this lower
ranking and prospective graduate students choosing to go elsewhere. Graduate
students do the bulk of research and teaching at the University, so the
quality of graduate student the University can attract is inherently tied
to the national ranking of the University's various programs. This trend
of decreasing rankings will continue unless the University takes better
care of its graduate students.
We were encouraged recently by a proposed $35 million graduate
student housing project near campus. We were surprised to learn
that this project was not up for a vote at the June Board of Regents meeting.
We were further surprised to learn that the Board of Regents voted to
approve a $35 million package of improvements for the football stadium,
including luxury seating. We certainly recognize the importance of athletics,
and particularly football, to the University. However, in a few
years, when the University's national ranking has slipped and we have
failed to keep pace with our peer institutions, the University's decision
to neglect the housing needs of graduate students may not seem like a
wise choice.
The University must provide affordable housing for graduate
students or the quality of education and research here will only decrease.
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