By: Noah Bloch
In August, the 16 residents of the Boe-Olsen apartments found out this would be their last semester in the building.
About a week-and-a-half before classes began, residents were notified via email that the building they thought were going to call home for the school year would be closing and they would have to move out by Jan 8.
“I would have been okay with it if they had told me when I was signing up for housing,” said Danny Lutgen, a second year at Concordia who is living in Boe-Olsen.
Residence life is working with students on an individual basis to find them alternative housing.
Boe-Olsen residents have three options: move into other on-campus housing immediately, wait until the end of the semester to move into on-campus housing, or move into off-campus housing. If they choose to move to an on-campus apartment option, residents will pay the Boe-Olsen rate, even if the building is more expensive.
If they move into a dorm building, they will receive a 50% discount off the cost of living there.
Despite the help and discounts, Lutgen wishes the school would simply wait until the end of the spring semester to close the building so he and his roommate, second year Ava Rolfson, don’t have to move out.
“The biggest thing that confused me is why they couldn’t wait till the end of the spring semester because there’s less students on campus,” said Rolfson.
The August email, sent from Vice President of Mission and Inclusion Michael Chan, states that Boe-Olsen is the site of planned improvements and the timeline for the project was only “recently clarified,” which led to the abrupt closing.
However, it is uncertain what the planned improvements are and according to Chan, the timeline is still not nailed down.
In a statement to the Concordian, Chan said that “Although no plans have received final approval and the timeline remains uncertain, the college has decided to close Boe-Olsen Apartments after the fall semester. Making this decision now gives residents advance notice and reduces the possibility of greater disruption to student lives and learning.”
Despite the annoyance of having to find another place to stay, Lutgen and Rolfson say residence life has been helpful.
“It sucks they’re kicking us out. Really wish they would have told us about that, but like reslife is doing their best to give us those options at least,” said Lutgen.
