tl20010315-000 "Thursday www.thetowerlightcom Published twice-weekly by students of Towson University 3/15/01 Losing weight for spring break 3 Familiar names on Oscar lists BSU Fashion Show tonight ii Fitzkee's contract not renewed 17 Departments News 3 Police Blotter 6 Nation 6 9 In a Theater Near You.10 The HO Road 11 Wrasslin' Weekly 14 Sports 17 In This Corner 17 Fast Break 18 Op/EL 22 Students making house calls Jane Fisher (left), the property manager at Valley View Apartments, meets with senior math major Merridith With on-campus housing contracts due tomorrow, some students look at other options Carrie Oleynik The Towerlight With the deadline to submit on-campus housing contracts set for tomorrow, the reality of finding housing has hit students planning to live both on and off campus. Robin Bond, maintenance coordinator of The Colony apartment complex, has noticed an increase of students coming into their office to receive hous-ing information. ""It definitely has something to do with the on-campus dead-line,"" she said. ""I hear a lot of students saying that if they don't have living arrangements now, then nothing could be arranged."" Barbara Neal, coordinator of housing , administration for housing and residence life, said housing information went out to students currently living on campus on Feb. 19. ""We also sent letters to par-ents that this process is coming up, so they know that soon their children will be discussing housing with them,"" she said. A noticeable difference for room . sign-up is that students now have the option of keeping the same room and requesting a roommate by completing the room request card included in the housing packet. ""All the student has to do is fill out the room request card if they want to keep the same room, or 'squat' the room, or move into a room with a squat-ter, which means they won't have to go to room sign-up in April,"" Neal said. The most chaotic part of the last few days before the housing deposits and contracts are due results from students' tendency to procrastinate. ""When students wait until the last minute to pay the deposits, the office does get crowded,"" Neal said, ""Students neglect to bring all their materials and have to complete them while they are here."" With the rush of students hav-ing to get on-campus arrange-ments complete, Jane Fisher, property manager of Valley View Apartments, has been swamped with students coming in to arrange leasing agreements with the off-campus apartment complex. ""This year has been the best year student-wise that I've seen,"" Fisher said. ""1 think next year will be a good year because the kids that are living here now Barr Barnhart/rho Towsrlight Suter about off-campus housing. are bringing their friends to live here."" Fisher explained that students have been meeting in her office to handle their $200 reservation Fee, which goes towards rent and guarantees the students an apartment, ""They're coming in with their friends and renting two apart-ments right next to each other,"" she said. ""In one building we had four apartments rented to students that were all .friends that want to live right next to each other."" Although Valley View is an off-campus apartment complex, Fisher reports its proximity to campus often gives them a 100 percent student residency rate. Because of that, and recent con-cerns over campus safety, Fisher is currently looking into making her property a safer area for her residents. ""1 met with the director of the See HOUSING, page 5 Today High 54 Low 41 Friday High 57 Low 36 Saturday High 56 Low 30 Sunday High 56 Low 30 "
