The Department of Residence is steadily losing ground to new housing developments in Ames, and employees at the highest echelons are fleeing like rats from a sinking ship.

Department of Residence Director Randy Alexander resigned his post at the end of June to pursue other employment opportunities after presiding over the implementation of the Master Plan for five years. John Shertzer, residence life coordinator and adviser to residence hall student groups, gave up hope last week and will scurry off to the University of Maryland in early August.

The face of the DOR has changed drastically in the past few years with the demolition, renovation and construction of new residence halls across campus. The DOR has plugged money into demolishing lower-cost dorms and building new suites and apartments that strain student budgets.

Meanwhile, local developers Hunziker, Jensen, Haverkamp and Cochrane have been pumping money into projects of their own. Apartment buildings are going up all over Ames offering competitive rent rates and easy access to campus.

A four-bedroom apartment averages under $300 per month per tenant with amenities such as high speed Internet and cable television. Comparatively, a four-bedroom university apartment in Frederiksen Court averages $470 per month. Though the university apartments include utilities, they are smaller than the average off-campus apartment and subject to university regulations.

It’s no wonder then that students are choosing to live off campus now more than they did five years ago. The number of students living on campus has fallen from 33.4 percent in 1999 to 31.7 percent in 2003. Students don’t want to pay the same price to share a 11-foot by 14-foot space with another person complete with shared bathrooms, residence hall rules and mandatory meal plans when they could live off campus with more space and comparable amenities.

The DOR did not make an economically sound choice when it decided to invest in high-priced student housing that can’t compete with off-campus living. While new students are attracted to amenities like suite-style-living, the hefty price tag they come with gives students reason to think twice about spending all of their four years in the dorms. Likewise, programs like Fresh Start may give the residence halls a puritan feel that parents may feel safe with but hardly prove appealing to the students forced to live in these places.

It’s no wonder Alexander and Shertzer have decided to move on to greener pastures: to avoid being sucked down the drain of economic despair with the ISU Department of Residence.