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Off Campus Living Office helps when gown moves into town

Students check out off campus living options at the Student Housing Fair in January.

By Andy Elder, Student Affairs Writer

Anyone familiar with college towns knows the expression town and gown. Town, of course, is the community that surrounds the college or university. Gown, in turn, represents the collective university.

In many situations, gown is all-inclusive, existing within its own borders. In other cases, gown spills into town, forcing the two to peacefully coexist.

When that happens, as it has at Penn State, the office of Off Campus Living helps ease the transition of gown into town.

"At a university this size with so many students, the need is important," said Loretta Redfurn, Assistant Director of Off Campus Living. "Students need direction. Students who want to live off campus need to know there are a lot of things associated with that. They need to know what to choose, what not to choose, lease options. There are a lot of things people need information on. And we need to make sure we work together with the downtown."        

More than 41,000 students attend the University Park campus. Of those, roughly 13,000 live on campus. So, that means around 28,000 students need to find housing in State College and its surrounding communities.

A fair portion of those 28,000 students has acquired some knowledge about off-campus living somewhere along the way. For others, it can be a daunting process to consider, let alone navigate and survive.

So, to help those uninitiated, Redfurn and the Off Campus Living Office host the Student Housing Fair. This year's fair, held in late January, was the 20 th renewal of the fair.

The fair brings together curious University Park students and students from all of Penn State's Commonwealth campuses with representatives of virtually all aspects of living off campus, such as: realtors, property managers, furniture retailers, carpet cleaners, internet providers, banks, State College borough, the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office and more.

"All of those who want to be a part are invited," Redfurn said. "It is an involvement-type of affair. A lot of people actually arrange tours and find out the costs of renting, having internet service, and everything involved with living off campus."

Upwards of 2,000 students glean information from the dozens of vendors who take part.

"It's a day of educating students who want to live off campus and students who are considering living off campus," Redfurn said.

The students who attend go away much better equipped to tackle renting a place of their own and thankful for OCL Office for coordinating the event.

"The students we've talked to have really enjoyed the event," Redfurn said. "The feedback we get from vendors has been very good, too."

While the planning and coordination of that crucial event consumes a large portion of two semesters, it is far from the sole focus of the office. The rest of the year, Redfurn and the office serve as a source of information for inquiring students.

On the Off Campus Living Office website, links such as "Important Tips on Renting" and "The Rental Jungle (a survivors handbook)" are available. Also, online brochures on a wide range of topics are just a mouse click away.

Again, the OCL Office steps in to try to effect a peaceful resolution to whatever the problem is.

"We deal with legal situations, problem situations, all kinds of situations," Redfurn said. "We work with property owners downtown and serve as a liaison."

It's a sometimes thankless job that fortunately draws thanks from grateful students and parents.

"We get parents thanking us and sending us letters. That's not what we're looking for, but we do appreciate it," Redfurn said. "A lot of parents will call just to make sure things get taken care of properly. And it's not always the property manager or owner; sometimes it's simply a miscommunication."

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