By Jenel Ronn
While Hostelling Intern -ational Boston is considered campus housing, the 61 students living at the end of Hemenway Street do not have access to the ResNet services offered to other on-campus students.
Though the university provides the students with a dial-up connection, the high-speed connection offered through ResNet is 10.0 megabites in comparison to the 28.8 killobites of dial-up.
“Unfortunately, it’s distance plus the building itself, makes ResNet too expensive to bring to the hostel,” said Vice President for Information Services Bob Weir.
The building is located at 12 Hemenway St., nearly on the corner of Hemenway and Boylston Streets. According to Weir, to bring the ResNet connection to any building on campus, cables must be physically wired to that building.
“Last year ResNet was rated among students as the most important service offered on campus,” Weir said. “We make big investments and pay a lot of attention to ResNet to keep it at that level.”
The youth hostel is primarily assigned to transfer students. Students that live in the hostel pay $2,990 a semester for a standard single and $2,630 a semester for a standard double.
Transfer student and hostel resident Dara Anderson does not think that it is fair that the hostel students pay the same amount for their rooms as the other residence halls.
“I don’t see how the university can expect transfer students to adjust when they stick us so far away from campus without even providing us with ResNet,” Anderson said. “We are all paying the same amount, so why shouldn’t we get all of the same things?”
Residential Life sent a letter to hostel students in September guaranteeing them housing for the remainder of their time at Northeastern.
Student Government Association President Michael Romano is not satisfied with the offer.
“Despite the fact that they are guaranteed housing for their remaining duration, more should be done on the interim to continue to reflect a higher level of commitment to residential living,” Romano said. “The youth hostel is neither an emblem nor a representation of what the Northeastern experience should be. Transfer students, above all else, who are attempting to familiarize themselves with campus life, could not be any more alienated and disconnected from campus life then living in the youth hostel.”
Leslie Sico, a transfer student and youth hostel resident, said that the environment provides a good chance to meet other transfer students who are just becoming familiarized with the university’s campus.
“Nobody knows anybody here,” Sico said. “I think a lot of us are transfer students and I’ve met a lot of people here.”
She also said that she “appreciated the offer from Residential Life” to guarantee housing.
When asked about the future of housing for transfer students, Assistant Director of On-Campus Housing Carrie Lemasa said, “Our goal is always to accommodate as many transfer students in housing as possible. The actual determination of where transfer students will be housed is re-evaluated each year.”
