Moving off-campus can be a daunting task, but one office is ready to lend students a hand.
The Office of Off-Campus Living, located at 4046 Walnut St., is a University organization prepared to transition students to dealing with a world of landlords, heating and subletting.
"Our aim is to provide students with enough resources and support so that they can make wise decisions when moving off-campus," said Miki Farcas, the office's director.
Students can use the service at any time to find roommates and research options for renting and subletting -- renting one's own apartment to a third party.
Students can also use the office to get in touch with University-subsidized lawyers if they have conflicts with their landlord.
However, Farcas said she encourages students to first attempt to resolve any conflicts with landlords on their own, using legal action as a last resort.
This semester, College junior Clare Tarpey used the office's Web site to find a place to live after studying in France.
"I spent several weeks checking the postings on a regular basis, and basically as soon as I saw a possible house, I e-mailed the girls to see if I could rent," she said.
Farcas said that students can research different landlords and prices through the Web site or by appointment with an employee, but the office cannot be held responsible for unhappy situations.
"We are trying through our policy to work with high-quality housing, but we are not in a position to guarantee it," Farcas said.
The key, she said, is "keeping communication open with the landlord and put requests in writing."
Farcas said the most important advice students should follow is to keep careful documentation of developing issues.
"What is missing is most students are not in the habit of documenting when and how a problem starts," she said. "They wait until it becomes acute."
The office also provides educational workshops and housing fairs for students.
These services are underused, according to Undergraduate Assembly Housing Committee Chairwoman Dipal Patel.
"Some of the members of our committee don't even know much about the office," the Engineering sophomore said. "Not enough students are aware of the services."
Tarpey agreed, noting that her search for housing was not easy.
"Although I think that the Off-Campus Living Web site is a good resource," she said, "I found that very few students were actually posting sublets through the site."
However, Tarpey thought this could be due to a lack of subletting options mid-year.
"I also looked at some other Web sites, ones run by private companies," Tarpey said. "But they had even fewer choices and were harder to search due poorly defined search criteria."
While the office services both graduates and undergraduates, the office was created with first-time renters in mind.
"Undergraduates are used to someone else taking care of problems," said Farcas. "Once you go off campus, you need to be in charge."
