Homeless on a "Norbertine" Campus
Samantha Christian
Issue date: 5/6/09 Section: News
The St. Norbert College president's cabinet is currently in the process of reviewing the current age requirement policy to decide whether or not some or all students under the age of seventeen should be allowed the privilege of living on campus.
The topic of concern is that the College would be held responsible if anything were to happen to a minor on campus.
The recent attention to this policy stems from the case of sixteen-year-old Jamilya Sauranbaeva '12 who has been living in the College-owned Kress Inn since January because she is still considered too young to live on campus. She is also not allowed to live with her seventeen-year-old sister Janiya '12, also a minor, who is a current resident of Mary Minahan McCormick (3M) hall.
While most returning students finalized their living plans by the end of March, this has not been the case for the two sisters from Kazakhstan who, after months of waiting for a reply from the Department of Residential Housing and Education (REH), still do not know where they will be living next semester.
"I just love this place, it's quiet and nice. The only problem is, I can't live on campus. But it's almost the end of the semester, we will be taking one summer session, but we are moving back to Kazakhstan on June 7 [for the summer] so this question is still unknown to us. It's confusing," Jamilya said. "I would love to live on campus next year for the experience and to get to know people."
Sauranbaeva was originally placed with a host-family, but the arrangement was not a good fit and the home was farther away and became inconvenient for them to drive her to campus everyday where she spends most of her time. Therefore, Sauranbaeva's family wanted her to be somewhere closer to the college and its environment, and the only real option was for her to stay at the hotel.
Her older sister Janiya feels like this has become a financial situation as well. The Sauranbaeva family pays $1400 at the beginning of each month to the hotel, which is almost as much as a student would pay for one semester to live on campus in the dorms.
The topic of concern is that the College would be held responsible if anything were to happen to a minor on campus.
The recent attention to this policy stems from the case of sixteen-year-old Jamilya Sauranbaeva '12 who has been living in the College-owned Kress Inn since January because she is still considered too young to live on campus. She is also not allowed to live with her seventeen-year-old sister Janiya '12, also a minor, who is a current resident of Mary Minahan McCormick (3M) hall.
While most returning students finalized their living plans by the end of March, this has not been the case for the two sisters from Kazakhstan who, after months of waiting for a reply from the Department of Residential Housing and Education (REH), still do not know where they will be living next semester.
"I just love this place, it's quiet and nice. The only problem is, I can't live on campus. But it's almost the end of the semester, we will be taking one summer session, but we are moving back to Kazakhstan on June 7 [for the summer] so this question is still unknown to us. It's confusing," Jamilya said. "I would love to live on campus next year for the experience and to get to know people."
Sauranbaeva was originally placed with a host-family, but the arrangement was not a good fit and the home was farther away and became inconvenient for them to drive her to campus everyday where she spends most of her time. Therefore, Sauranbaeva's family wanted her to be somewhere closer to the college and its environment, and the only real option was for her to stay at the hotel.
Her older sister Janiya feels like this has become a financial situation as well. The Sauranbaeva family pays $1400 at the beginning of each month to the hotel, which is almost as much as a student would pay for one semester to live on campus in the dorms.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Joe
posted 5/15/09 @ 1:21 PM CST
Great article, glad it was brought to light
Unknown
posted 9/30/09 @ 8:04 PM CST
Hypocrites! They talk about concept of "communio" and then they do this. Shame on you Mrs. Barnett for discriminating international student and for not trying to understand money doesn't grow on trees in Kazakhstan. (Continued…)
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