Married couples, single parents will have to find housing off Valley campus starting in '05

Lily Banuelos, 3, and Jewel Beayon, 19 months, play with bubbles at a birthday party for one of the children who live in Missouri Valley College's married couple and single-parent units. Lily is the daughter of Micah Banuelos and Jewel is the daughter of Brandy Beayon. Both are students at MVC and will be losing their housing options on campus next year. [Click to enlarge]

Missouri Valley College recently confirmed that it will be "phasing out" married-couple and single-parent housing on its campus. The repercussions of this announcement have rippled through the campus community, with students' responses ranging from stoic to anger and frustration.

A meeting in late January ended with married couples and single parents attending Valley airing numerous concerns. MVC Vice President Mike Kenagy informed students at the meeting that they were indeed very important to the college, but the campus will be phasing out the single-parent and married-couple housing program in order to accommodate more students in that living space. During the same meeting, according to students, Kenagy told them the move was a money and space issue.

Currently, married couples and single parents live in the Brunswick Avenue apartments and in the "old storefront" building, just south of the apartments on Brunswick Avenue. Since the old storefront will be torn down this summer to create more parking space, that only leaves the apartment building for married students and parents -- and only through the 2004-05 school year. By fall of 2005, all married couples and single parents will be expected to have moved off campus.

According to one married couple, they were also given the option of living in separate dorms, where curfews and other restrictions apply.

Kenagy said housing for this group of students is "guaranteed through next school year until the fall of 2005." Kenagy asserted that by the time housing for married couples and single parents is phased out, all of the single parents and married couples will have graduated.

However, several couples and single mothers who are Valley students contradicted that statement.

Amanda White is a single mother living just off MVC's campus in the Brunswick apartments. She has a double major in criminal justice and political science, works 32 hours each week at Butterfield Youth Center and has a 5-year-old son named Jacob.

White said she will not have completed requirements for her degree by the time single-parent housing is eliminated, leaving her and Jacob to find alternative housing options for the fall 2005 semester.

Missouri Valley's administration, with the guidance of the Board of Trustees, has made the decision to continue with the phasing out married couple and single-parent housing because it can put more single students within the same space. Where there is one married couple or one single parent living, the college can remodel that space and put in anywhere from four to eight students. This allows for more students, accommodating Valley's increasing enrollment.

While Kenagy has said repeatedly that the housing changes are a "space issue," White doesn't believe that.

"They could find something for us on campus if they really wanted," White said. "They just don't want to put money into something that isn't bringing them money.

"Regardless of the explanation, we honestly feel like we are being discriminated against," she said. "The school is doing all of these things for other students, but are shunning married couples and single parents. I feel like because we aren't athletes, we're costing the school money and are just a liability to them."

Micah Banuelos and her 3-year-old daughter, Lily, will also be affected. "It comes down to money," Banuelos said. "They don't want to put money into fixing this place up."

Banuelos is from San Francisco and has no one in Marshall to depend on. "It's my daughter and I," she said. "You'd think that being a Christian school, they would promote family."

MVC's administration said it is trying to help the affected students by providing listings of all the available rentals in the community. Officials reportedly are even considering repackaging students' scholarships so they can still get a meal plan to eat in the cafeteria and live off-campus.

"They told us that they would help us with finding public housing, the low-income places, but I'll believe it when I see it," White said.

Students reported rental listings and repackaging of scholarships may help a little, but most are already full-time students working part-time jobs and are still having trouble making ends meet.

"It's the only choice I have," said Banuelos about low-income housing. According to White, low-income housing typically costs one-third of a person's monthly income. She would still be responsible for paying for utilities, food and day care for her child.

Even those students who are graduating before the housing options are phased out are upset with the decision. Jessica and Nate Casperson are seniors with a 6-month-old daughter, Dusti. Jessica said, "It's like saying, 'Moms don't need to better themselves at college, or get an education for their kids.'"

Being married, she couldn't imagine what it's going to be like for the single moms she knows. "There aren't enough hours in the day to work full-time and be a student full-time," she said.

Knowing this from experience are Courtney and Bruce Thomas. Both are education majors and work part-time at the Marshall Habilitation Center. At one point last semester, both were trying to work full-time and go to school full-time. They both found it next to impossible to get all of their school work done and still find time to sleep.

Courtney contacted the Democrat-News after hearing rumors throughout the fall that married couple and single-parent housing was being done away with. She said that there were reliable employees who knew what was going on and weren't saying anything about it.

The only reason that the Thomases moved from their home in Texas to Missouri Valley was because they offered married couple housing as part of their scholarship packages. Neither will graduate before the housing is eliminated.

Single-parent and married couple housing is a privilege and not a requirement according to Shannon Johnson, Missouri Valley's director of operations.

Leigh Ann Hartman, executive assistant to the college president, said it is important to remember the college has to look at what is best from the business and monetary aspects of the situation. "It's unreasonable to spend money on a space for one to two people when the building can be redone to hold a lot more than that for the same cost," Hartman said.

Most affected students said they understand the business aspect of campus housing, but are still frustrated with the situation and do not think it is fair. The college has given the students the next academic year to find other arrangements, but most students affected will be moving as soon as possible. Some even said they are considering other colleges.