What a joyous occasion! Due to now-shorter semesters, students will be made to reap the benefits of that shorter semester and longer break fit for rest, summer jobs and internships. But students aren’t the only people who will reap the rewards of a shortened semester.

The new calendar year for BYU-Idaho inflicts a shortened the length to each semester. This past Winter, school got out at the end of April while the up-coming Winter Semester 2007 gets out the first week of April, just before Easter—nearly a month earlier than last year.

Most apartment complexes are keeping the rates for the new shorter semesters the same, and some are even increasing prices. So students are now going to be paying more for less and will be raked across the proverbial hot coals in order to live in approved housing.

Perhaps the calendar change starting in January is a culprit behind the need to increase prices. This is the argument of many complexes and even the housing office.

“With the new change in the track system coming up in January, [renters] will have a month and a half when they won’t be able to rent,” Doug Sorensen assistant director of the BYU-I housing office said in Scroll’s news story on page A1. “So they will either raise the annual prices or just the day rate.”

True, the break between the summer and fall semesters will mean fewer renters at the complexes, but with international students and some permanent students in Rexburg staying in town, the closing of such apartments could be a powerful hindrance to where they can live.

Along with the seven weeks of break, some apartment owners said the reason prices might be going up is the increased price of utilities.

In some complexes, however, students who pay utilities separately from the rent are overcharged and often given back the remaining utilities deposit they didn’t use.

For example: One student paid the $120 utility deposit and then at the end of the semester the student received back the money she didn’t use for deposit, $50. In this case, there would be no cause to raise rent because the student had not used the entire utility deposit.

Regardless of the cost of utilities, there is no reason for rent to be raised to accommodate a rise in utilities cost. If anything, students will not be causing a rise in the cost of utilities because of the shortened semesters; without a student using utilities for three weeks, the cost should remain the same.

Yes, the United States enjoys a free-market economy where price is controlled by demand. Yes, the demand in Rexburg for student-approved housing is high. In a Scroll Online exclusive from Nov. 7, Jessica Pace, the director of operations of Rexburg Housing, said, “Everything is driven by the market. Depending on supply and demand, housing prices either raise or lower.”

Pace’s comments are true, especially in a free-market economy. But when approved housing is involved, the market is no longer free. It is controlled.

The market is restricted by the fact that students have no free choice of where they will live. Approved housing regulations mandate that students live in a specific set of complexes, causing the demand to increase.

With a reported occupancy rate currently at 95 percent, according to the BYU-Idaho Housing Office, complexes are able to charge what they want with little regard or few consequences.

If the market were free from such mandates, students could choose not to live in obviously expensive apartments.

If students are required to live in approved housing, they should have more of a say regarding what they are paying and be able to hold complexes more responsible for price increases.

BYU-I is the lifeblood of approved complexes and therefore should take the initiative to have a say in how complexes conduct their business.