MIT Graduate Student Apartments Now (GSAN)

About

We are a group of MIT graduate students and community allies who love our community, respect our neighbors, and care deeply about the future of the Institute. We are trying to pass a zoning petition through the Cambridge City Council that would require MIT to build on-campus graduate housing for 1,800 new students to offset the number of new workers anticipated to arrive in Cambridge when the Volpe project is complete.

We need all the help we can get - here are a few ways you can support this effort:

Press release

**FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE**

Contact: doug mcpherson (857) 259-3798 // moremitgradhousing@gmail.com

August 14, 2017

MIT GRADUATE STUDENTS AND COMMUNITY MEMBERS FILE ZONING PETITION CALLING FOR 1800 NEW STUDENT APARTMENTS

PETITION REQUIRES MIT TO BUILD MORE STUDENT HOUSING BEFORE VOLPE PROJECT IS COMPLETE

CAMBRIDGE, MA — MIT graduate students and community members submitted a zoning petition to the Cambridge City Council that would require the development of 1800 new graduate student apartments amid growing demand for housing units in Cambridge and the surrounding areas. The petition responds to concerns that MIT is not doing enough to divert its students from an increasingly competitive and expensive Cambridge housing market.

MIT currently has 6,800 graduate students, and this effort would affect the two-thirds of the grad student population who currently need to compete in the housing market with families in Cambridge and surrounding cities.

The document, filed today at the Cambridge Office of the City Clerk, follows the June 21st petition filed by the MIT Investment Management Company (MITIMCo) outlining the framework for developing the 14-acre Volpe Parcel near Kendall Square. The key provisions of today's petition require Volpe's developer to build more graduate housing for students at a location of its choosing in Cambridge within 1.5 miles of the parcel before it completes the development of Volpe's lucrative commercial space.

The petition:

  • Calls for the creation of 1100 housing units for single graduate students and an additional 700 for familie s
  • Requires a phasing plan from MIT outlining when graduate housing units will be built
  • Provides demand relief in the City of Cambridge’s increasingly crowded housing market
  • Offers MIT flexibility to build graduate housing outside of the Kendall Square area
  • Requires completion of graduate student housing as a condition of commercial development at the Volpe site, but the proposal explicitly exempts residential development and development of the Volpe Transportation Building itself from any such conditions

“We care deeply about the future of MIT and the future of Kendall square, and we trust that the original Volpe proposal was probably crafted with the best of i ntentions,” said MIT graduate student and first petition signer, Chris Smith. “But MIT students, Cambridge community members, and MIT’s Volpe working group have all recognized the need for additional graduate housing. The zoning petition is a call to an intentional conversation aimed at making sure that MIT fulfills its obligation to meet this need.”

Alex Auriema, another petition signer added, “MIT’s massive commercial venture will bring thousands of new high-income workers to Kendall Square, pushing the housing market even more out of reach for low and middle income residents and students alike. The least MIT can do is to balance that impact by housing more of its growing population of graduate students.”

The petition follows two major developments during months of grassroots student organizing, dialogue, and consultation with members of the Cambridge community. The first was a graduate student body survey conducted earlier this summer by the MIT Graduate Student Council (GSC) to quantify demand for housing. The survey received over 1500 responses (23% of the MIT graduate student body), and students overwhelmingly expressed a desire for affordable on-campus housing options. The survey estimated that the unmet demand for graduate student housing was at least 1450 beds (800 for single students and 650 for families), but could actually be as high as 1800.

The second development was an underwhelming response from the MIT administration. An August 3rd e-mail to graduate students from MIT Chancellor Cynthia Barnhart made no commitment to bring new graduate housing online and cited a 2014 report estimating unmet housing needs at only 250-350 beds as the basis for the administration’s planning. The e-mail proposed the creation of a new working group and the launching of a yearlong study to determine the level of need for graduate student housing and potential locations where it could be built.

Some students viewed this as an unsatisfactory response to concerns that have been building over the last few months. Last spring the previously formed MIT Volpe Working Group received a letter drafted by several urban planning students and signed by nearly three hundred MIT affiliates. Weeks later, representatives from over three dozen MIT departments voted in a overwhelming 38-2 majority to charge the MIT GSC leadership with taking steps to advocate for increased availability of graduate housing in conjunction with the redevelopment of the Volpe parcel.

“It shouldn’t take a year of meetings to realize that building more graduate student housing will go a long way to relieving pressure on the market,” said David Tisel, a graduate student supportive of the effort. “The administration’s decision to form another working group is just an admission that they aren’t yet willing to put real resources behind the growing need for graduate student housing in Cambridge.”

As another fall term approaches, the lack of affordable graduate housing is having a real impact on students, some of whom are currently being forced to seek housing far from MIT’s campus.

Matthew Robayna, a second-year urban planning student and Dorchester resident said, “When my partner and I were looking for a place to live close to campus, we were unable to find anything affordable and didn't think there was anything in graduate student housing that could accommodate us. We chose to live in Dorchester because it was much more affordable, but it would have been nice if MIT had flexible and affordable housing options that would have allowed us to find housing closer to campus in Cambridge."

The petition signers emphasized that their goal is raising the profile of MIT’s graduate student housing needs, as the crucial discussion moves forward about what the Volpe will look like and how many workers it will bring. They hope that the petition will encourage MIT to develop a concrete plan for additional student housing.

Kelly Blynn, an MIT Master of Science in Transportation student and supporter of the effort, was upbeat about the prospects for dialogue. “We support the construction of additional graduate housing and are excited to see graduate students engaging with the civic process. We hope to work with MIT administrators and other nearby stakeholders to make sure we come up with a solution that works for everyone in the Cambridge community.”

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Enclosures:

Press coverage

  • MIT must build graduate student housing before Volpe commercial use, petition says (Cambridge Day)
  • MIT students press for more on-campus housing (Boston Globe)