One month ago, [we discussed why undergraduate students deserve affordable, close-to-campus housing](https://www.themaneater.com/stories/2014/10/15/student-housing-expansion-must-stop/), but we did not mention that graduate students deserve the same opportunity for housing.
University officials are still debating whether to remodel [Manor House](http://reslife.missouri.edu/apartments/manor-house) as a [new residence hall or to maintain it as an apartment complex geared toward graduate students, as it is currently](https://www.themaneater.com/stories/2014/11/12/manor-houses-future-remains-uncertain/). If officials renovate Manor House as a residence hall, it would try to attract third and fourth-year undergraduates and graduate students.
Manor House is one of the three remaining universty-run apartment complexes that currently cater to graduate students, along with University Heights and Tara Apartments. After a balcony collapsed at University Village and killed a fireman in February, the apartment complex, along with the adjacent Student Parent Center, was torn down. If the university decides to make Manor House a residence hall, graduate students will be left with even fewer housing options than they currently have.
We believe that MU must keep Manor House as an apartment complex tailored toward graduate students. While there is also a great demand for undergraduate housing, the university should not attempt to address this issue at the expense of our graduate students and their housing needs.
It is not realistic for graduate and undergraduate students to live under the same roof when the two student groups have different housing demands. Many graduate students have family and children, and they require quiet spaces to focus on their research and studies.
Turning Manor House into a residential hall also does not make much sense for undergraduate students who would live there. Manor House is not located near any dining halls, which could be problematic for tenants with university meal plans.
The university itself stands to benefit from taking better care of its graduate students’ needs. Attracting more graduate students would be beneficial for the university since many of these students are assets to MU’s research missions. But lack of proper housing can be an inhibitor for prospective graduate and professional students. Having plenty of affordable housing close to campus could be a selling point the university could tout when recruiting and retaining these students.
We believe that the business model for the Department of Residential Life could be at odds with its goal of providing affordable student housing. The department funds itself and must constantly balance generating enough revenue to maintain its facilities and keeping its prices affordable for students. The university should reconsider this aspect of the department to make affordable housing a bigger priority.
However, this task cannot be accomplished without more support from the state. [As we stated in our editorial on state funding two weeks ago](https://www.themaneater.com/stories/2014/10/29/state-must-fund-critical-mu-renovations/), when the state grants necessary funding to the university, we increase the amount of immediate, localized stimulus to the Missouri economy. As the state’s flagship institution, we shouldn’t have to struggle to fund housing for our students.
Graduate students are already in a difficult situation trying to find affordable housing near campus. If Manor House is converted into a residence hall, these students will be put in an increasingly worse situation. As a university, we cannot ignore the graduate student population as did during the University Village incident. Now is the time to show our graduate students that they are valuable members to our university by giving them the housing that they need.
