RACHEAL ALVSTAD / Scroll
Arbor Cove Apartments, located on 2nd West, will become men’s housing this summer.

Arbor Cove will soon become men’s housing

Jody Lane Scroll Staff

Managers announced in a meeting with residents March 8 that Arbor Cove apartments will be switching to men’s housing beginning this summer.

Some residents of Arbor Cove who attended the meeting were upset with the announcement.

“It’s really irritating,” said Natalie Watkins, a freshman from Sikeston, Mo., “I mean, they expect you to fulfill your end of the [housing] contract.”

Jessica Pace, director of operations for Rexburg Housing, said it would be much easier but less responsible to just let students walk away from their contracts.

“If students have valid reasons, we’ll let them out of their contracts,” Pace said, “but I think we can do better than that.”

Rexburg Housing owns and operates 10 BYU-Idaho-approved apartment complexes. Pace said she was trying to go the extra mile to find suitable housing for the 35 displaced residents in one of Rexburg Housing’s four other approved women’s complexes.

Some residents, like Shelonna Comer, a freshman from New Madrid, Mo., said because of the short notice she isn’t interested in living in Rexburg Housing-owned apartments anymore, “I think if they just give us our money back I’ll be happy,” Comer said.

Pace said Rexburg Housing’s ultimate goal is to make the residents happy, but they are a market driven company and she also has to make responsible business decisions.

Doug Sorensen, BYU-I assistant director of Housing, said recently men’s housing has seen a lower vacancy rate than women’s. Sorensen said changing the gender of an apartment complex is ultimately a business decision up to the owner, though in extreme cases the Housing Office can dictate to owners what gender their apartment complexes will accommodate.

With 16 apartments housing up to 95 students, Arbor Cove is one of the smallest women’s complexes Rexburg Housing owns. Pace said it provided the best situation because it would be easy to change over and it would impact the least number of residents.

Some residents added that leaving the student ward they were in would be the most difficult part of moving somewhere else.

“Leaving this ward will be heart-wrenching,” said Kaytie Gritton, a senior from Idaho Falls, Idaho.