University of Iowa - Hawkeye Yearbook (Iowa City, IA)

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causes students lots of headaches University students are also bothered by problems closer at hand-right in Iowa City. Getting a place to live off campus away from the University is one of the most exciting headaches of all time. More headaches begin right after the first monthls rent is due. First of all, therels more work than in dorms where you have meals cooked and rooms cleaned for you. But then therels none of the false fire alarms, all night laugh- ins and crowded rooms. Another problem is being a home owner or a room owner, whichever the case. What do you when the hot water heater blows up or the pipes freeze in the winter? Where does all that stacked garbage go until someone picks up the trash?J Who pays the lights this month? How many packs of Cigarettes did you have on the gro- cery bill? Besides these adjustment problems, therels a more seri- ous problem. Living standards of University-approved housing do not fulfill city housing standards. Therefore, students get stuck with houses that are cold, damp and fire hazardous. For example7 one married couple said, We could see our breath in every room of our house last winterfa Jerry Sies got city records open to students last sum- mer so they could just see what they were getting into. However, after the initial publicity, little came of the move to improve University-approved housing. Nearly every student who lives in rambling oH-campus housing rather than pay an outrageous price has a dreamwr perhaps a nightmare-that someday helll return and his house Wlll have gone to the happy hunting ground, Iowa City land fill. 29

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K , W' h'zww N Ex Iowa City Offvcampus living offers anything from a hole in a wall to a plush apartment with wall-tO-wall carpeting. And the prices matchhand m'cr-matchh-what you get in the housing. Some single rooms rent for as Cheap as $35 a month; apartments in large complexes rent for $175 a month. Some f'luckielr'hh stu- dents find old SChOOl 11011863 and farm houses much cheaper, but with creaky boards and airy Cracks. Most students find that wherever they live there are problems-neighbors who have all- night bashes, drippy faucets , , , 28

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Up and down, around and around the cars wander through the University parking lots looking for that elusive last space. Itls an endless procession and a futile effort with 12,200 registered student cars com- peting for only eight parking lots. Even if someone would succeed in find- ing a place to park, there are the Pretty Ritzf7 meter maids to attach their little notices proving to campus parking that they have come to work. With parking as with much else, all is not as it seems. lVithout warning to the V students, campus parking decides to change ten-hour meters to four-hour ones. But the student soon finds out. To compound the problem. the ephem- eral lots change with the seasons. Student- sticker in the fall; studeut-metered in the winter; and faculty in the spring. Next summer, the lot becomes the social science building. Plans debated, discussed and defiled call for perimeter lots with a shuttle bus sys- tem, development of more surface lots and possibly another parking ramp.