It’s that time of year again, time to figure out where to live next year. ISU students have recently been met with some housing changes.

Dually, the city of Ames and Iowa State University are trying to burden us.

No, I am not talking about the rapidly inclining tuition or the dim future of Ladies’ Night.

This scheme sneaks up on us silently and maliciously and affects us in the simplest of ways; where we live. The dynamic of student housing, on and off campus, is swiftly changing, leaving students with fewer options and emptier wallets.

It started in 1998 when the Department of Residence concocted a “Master Plan” that outlines dates for construction and demolition of dormitories. Those with dismal fates include Knapp-Storms, Westgate Hall and parts of Friley and Helser. Ready for construction are the Union Drive Suites — suite-style dorms restricted to freshmen, including the recently opened Eaton Hall, and two more identical suites following by fall 2005.

According to the DOR’s Master Plan Web site, located at www.iastate.edu/~dor, residence halls do not contribute to the recruitment of prospective students, and they are simply meeting students’ demand for more privacy, semi-private bathrooms and single bedrooms.

Of course students are going to desire privacy, but dorms wouldn’t be dorms without 5 square feet of living space, lofted beds, shared germs, shower-shoe requiring bathrooms, and roommate intrusion.

Every college freshman deserves to live like a sardine, enhancing appreciation for every living situation thereafter. If residence halls are not related to freshman recruitment, why cater so much to their needs?

If freshmen want to live like college royalty, they will pay the price. The recently crafted Eaton Hall, opened this fall, costs over $1,000 more per year than a standard dorm room, and a single in Eaton Hall tops out at $5,000 a year. Upperclassmen live cheaper in Wallace-Wilson as singles than Eaton Hall residents do as doubles. In addition, every residence hall rate, precluding Towers, will inflate by 7.75 percent next year.

Another aspect of the “Master Plan” was to transform the once freshmen-dominated dorms of Wallace-Wilson to upperclassmen-only singles, rupturing the Towers atmosphere.

A proud Towers alumni like myself would like to remember and preserve the tradition of thousands of freshmen living on top of and within an acre of each other, creating a flourishing network of social connections. Though the entrances are gated to prevent bodily injury from falling debris, and endearingly nicknamed “Ghetto,” I called that place home for nine months.

It is general consensus that Towers are not the Embassy Suites of the residence halls, so if a freshman loved dorm life so much as to stay another year, why is the DOR punishing their decision with Wallace-Wilson? Many upperclassmen choose to live there and enjoy it, but demand for these singles was average, and they failed to fill to capacity.

If the dorms just aren’t an option any more, a perfect solution would be to gather up your best buds, and move into a house anywhere in Ames.

But not if the city of Ames has anything to say about it. The Ames government has recently cracked down on zoning laws and are issuing outrageous fines to unsuspecting house-dwelling college students.

The reason they can get away with this is found on Ames’ city government Web site, www.city. ames.ia.us. According to Chapter 29, Article 2, only “families” can occupy houses. Families are loosely defined as groups living together, sharing the same common living, sleeping, cooking and eating facilities. To be considered a family, the habitants must be blood-related, married or in special cases, handicapped.

If not in one of these categories, a limit of three unrelated persons per house is enforced.

I understand how this law is intended to prevent overcrowding, noisy parties and rowdy a.m. antics by college students, but I’d like to think the reason students share houses is to minimize rent and maximize living space, not terrorize suburban neighborhoods. If a four- or five-bedroom house can only be occupied by three people, rent is going to be incredibly high, making it harder for landlords to find renters.

Ames’ city government is also trying to enforce zoning ordinances, putting restriction on the use of buildings and yards in each zone.

Basically, they are making it trickier for 20-something boozehounds to walk the same streets where little Suzy rides her tricycle. These zones have titles ranging from “residential medium density zone” to “general industrial zone.” There is no clear definition though, so until they create a zone entitled, “place where ISU students can’t live,” it’ll be hard to keep us out.

One of the most unique college experiences is living in a house with as many friends as humanly possible, and the city of Ames is trying to restrict us from doing so.

By limiting where and how students live and handing out fines for violations, Ames is making living in a house more of a severe pain than a joy. The next best thing may be apartment living, but even the supply market of apartments can only handle so much student demand.

With the rising residence hall woes and stricter housing regulations, an affordable, livable, legal place to live is becoming more of a false hope. When making that big decision this year, remember these things.

Ashley Pierson is a senior in finance from Forest City.