Updated 1:10 p.m., July 16, 2020
To supplement the supply of on-campus housing and allow for a de-densified campus during the upcoming academic year, the University has agreed to one-year leases at four off-campus locations in Providence.
The University has leased units at 257 Thayer Apartments, River House, 95 Chestnut Street and Chestnut Commons at 85 Chestnut St., according to University Spokesperson Brian Clark. The University will be assigning some students, primarily seniors, to these off-campus apartments, according to Residential Life’s Fall 2020 Opening website.
The residences are “all within reasonable walking distance to existing shuttle stops,” Clark wrote in an email to The Herald.
In total, the leases will cover approximately 220 beds, with the number of beds per location ranging from 30 to 70, Clark wrote. Apartment-style units include studios and one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments. Some of the units will be fully furnished, and the University will provide furnishings in other cases.
The units will be assigned and billed as if they are on-campus housing, but students living there may be subject to additional policies implemented by the private property managers. The cost of housing at Brown for the 2020-2021 academic year was set at $9,774 — a 3.76 percent increase from the previous academic year — at the Corporation’s February meeting.
Clark said that "the financial terms of our leases, on these or any other leases for Brown, is not information that we'd share publicly."
Students with a minimum semester level of five may request assignment to a Brown-leased off-campus apartment. Assignments will prioritize higher semester-level, according to the Fall 2020 Location of Study form and housing questionnaire. In the housing questionnaire, students may also list up to three other students that they would like to live near as preferred neighbors. Students are required to submit this form indicating their location of study, as well as their housing and meal plan preferences for the upcoming academic year by 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, July 15.
Approximately half of the University’s on-campus housing will be in use in the fall semester, according to the Reslife Fall 2020 website. Students living on campus will be placed in singles to reduce building density and enable proper social distancing measures amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Housing assignments for the fall are for one semester only, The Herald previously reported. It was not immediately clear if students in the Brown-leased spaces would only be placed in those accommodations for the fall.
Returning students will be notified of their housing assignments by Aug. 10, and students will move onto campus on a staggered schedule between Aug. 29 and Sept. 1.
Clarification: A previous version of this article noted that University Spokesperson Brian Clark declined to comment on the financial terms of the University’s leases. In fact, Clark said that the financial terms of the leases is not information that the University would share publicly.
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