We understand.
Kent State U has ample acreage to build more student housing.
Leave our Senior Citizen population alone.
KSU, build new housing ON CAMPUS.
Leave Silver Oaks Drive alone.

Matt,
Poor, Poor Kent State they cut off applications after they they were sure to maximize enrollment. How about cutting it off before it becomes a problem. You were provided numbers justifying this overselling but I didn't see a number on how many rooms and total beds have been eliminated since KSU tore down Terrace Hall, along with other campus housing until now.
Maybe the taxpayers and the State should encourage KSU to build student hiousing rather than build commercial Hotels. KSU does have a role in the seniors at Silver Oaks being kicked to the curb, and they are hiding behind PR like this article. the Kent community derserves better.

Hey, I know what we can do with overcrowding... let's kick out the senior citizens- who live nearby campus who have paid KENT CITY taxes for 40 yrs.,- and let KSU students who will only be here for a couple years use those facilities! Easy solution and no one gets hurt, right?

Poor students....(LOL)..what about the Senior Citizens at Silver Oaks. The students are mobile and adjust to anything, but the Senior Citizens that are affected don't have that priviledge. These poor older people have to go out and try to find housing, now let the KSU students do the same thing! The students will find, either apartments are too expensive or will not accomodate their needs (the same as the Senior Citizens). I have no mercy on KSU or the students at this point.

Take some of the tuition raises and bonuses given and build more housing. It is not up to the city to provide housing for the university. Small world dorms torn down? Other dorms torn down. This is the fault of those in charge. Build some dorms. I don't care if they are ugly square buildings. KSU is out of control for housing.

Well more poor planning by KSU! It's all about the numbers people not the education they provide or any hardships they place on the students. Nevermind the effect too many students have on the comunity. Hey maybe they can give them sleeping bags so they can sleep on the Esplande.....Makes sense to have a Esplande and KSU trying to run Kent but they don't build and take care of what they need.

I am continually amazed how little the commenters here know how this all works. Did you notice? KSU has had this happen the last 4 years in a row. Why? Because the numbers they have in August don't necessarily reflect the numbers they have by September and October. People commit to living in the dorms and then back out either from finding other places to live or not attending KSU at all. That's the same reason KSU doesn't release their enrollment stats on the first day of school; they release them about 2 weeks later after things have mostly settled.

People complain about the university wasting money (I am one of them!). Having too many dorms and not enough occupants (which was happening when Small Group was still being used) results in a LOSS for the university, the same way that too many vacant apartments in a complex result in a loss for the owner (like Silver Oaks).

Also, again, KSU did not buy Silver Oaks, so please stop acting like KSU is "kicking seniors out". In case you didn't notice, KSU is about to welcome its largest freshman class ever and Sunrise is being torn down. All the new housing planned won't be done until *next year*. KSU has no plans to build more residence halls because they know it will end up costing them more money not only to build them, but to maintain them too. Dorms compete with private apartments and for the most part lose to them in the market. Private developers and KSU know this and plan accordingly.

I am continually amazed how little heart the business community has for actual PEOPLE. You need to get a real life. Don't you have grandparents? Would you not see the value they add to communities.

The problem is NOT with students it is with poor management of KSU properties. You better believe KSU administrators are in cahoots with Capstone Development. If they were not Capstone would not be trying to bulldoze their way into Kent, Ohio.

ugh you people.. if KSU wasn't here this town wouldn't be viable at all. Kent would be a ghost town. if you don't like living in a college town GTFO! seriously, move. just stop complaining. KSU is THE reason this town is where people choose to live. if you want to live in ravenna go live there. the hatred from residents towards KSU is deplorable, and makes me ashamed to share this town with you silly bastards.

KSU is loved by all who live in and close to campus. Students are not the problem. As with the rest of the world the problem is BIG business and it's attempt to own everything and make renters out of us all. Individual rights are being plowed under for the rich. Our ancestors left their homelands for this very reason and we should fight against BIG business owning all the land and making all the rules.

Everyone needs to stop complaining about Kent State and the supposed "down side" to it being in this town. Look around town and all the choices there are for food, entertainment, shopping etc. Do you think half of the eateries, bars, stores and the like would be here if there weren't 30,000+ students and faculty here at Main Campus every year? Instead of the community and student population fighting with each other all the time why can't we all work together to benefit this area.

Yes it's true most of us students will only be here for a handful of years but during our time here we want better choices and amenities. Businesses realize that and cater to our demographic more so than any other demographic out there. So when that happens they make us happy for 4 years or so but then when we leave the community continues to reap the benefits for as a long as they choose to reside here. Take the downtown revitalization project for example. Do you think that without KSU's presence there would still be private developers shelling out money to completely revamp and upgrade downtown Kent, Ohio? No way! however it is something that permanent residents will be able to enjoy with there families for generations to come.

This town is now over populated with people who came here attracted by KSU. KSU was attracted here by the Kent family who were willing to donate a farm that is now part of the front campus. The Univesity held out for more and the community got together and purchased a second farm which made the school happy and they have had their hands out for more ever since.
What some have failed to experience or learn is that this town was here for a long time before Kent State, The millls along the river, canals and the railroad built the town. It was a quite small town that was enjoyable up until the sixties. It had more to offer then than you will ever see currently, Hardware stores, grocery stores, men and womens clothing stores, drug stores a cab stand. It didn't have slum lords and very little off campuis housing.
It had people paying property taxes so the community could grow, something KSU does not and will never do.
Anyone who thinks KSU is that much of a blessing wasn't here when the helicopters buzzed the city and armored personel carriers and jeeps with machine guns mounted patrolled our streets, before and after those at KSU went home.

Jon Ridinger "a voice of reason" no seriously thanks.

In the 1700-1800 it was the rich who controlled the land, they collected rent back then, too. I am likening those "rich land owners" to today's BIG Corporations who are slowing buying up land. Yes, they use eminant domain,a flimsy law, as their "right to own" We have been lied to by all involved. Told that the owners never put the property up for sale, that KSU used eminant domain. Then KSU heard that story and said it was not true. Okay, we will be alright, hired Avery Friedman as our attorney and yesterday the State Attorney General, jumped on our bandwagon. So now, time will tell. Opinions are like aholes...everybody has one.

Here it from our attorney at this link http://www.fox8.com/news/wjw-silver-oaks-evicted-seniors-state-attorney-general-office-dn-txt,0,7544825.story

sir, <taps foot> still wrong story, but THANKS!

KSU should stop tearing down dorms and then the students might live on campus where they belong and out of our neighborhoods, where the students have made some wonderful middle class neighborhoods slums. After the students live in Silver Oaks one year then they too will be slums. I pray the state officials will back the seniors so they have a place together to call home. The writing is on the wall that KSU is at fault for the seniors worries. Jon you need to grow up and realize how rich our community is because of the seniors. Students don't pay taxes either!!!!

No sense in disagreeing anymore, time will tell.........we all have our own opinion, of which we are entitled. Goodnight.

Jon Ridinger said:
"I don't know of many large corporations that existed in the 1700s and 1800s in western Europe."

Perhaps there were not many of them yet, but those large corporations that did exist at that time (headquartered in London and Amsterdam, respectively) had enormous power and international reach, and even commanded their own military forces. It seems bizarre, if Mr. Ridinger is indeed a schoolteacher, that he wouldn't know about these corporations, since our own Boston Tea Party was organized in response to the actions of one of them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_India_Company
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_East_India_Company

And although they may not have been large corporations, landlords in the British Isles created misery for the population in the 19th century, eventually leading to "The Clearances" of whole populations in Scotland. These displacements were described by the landlords as necessary "improvements" of the property they owned. They were "particularly notorious as a result of the late timing, [and] the lack of legal protection for year-by-year tenants." Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clearances#.22Improvements.22

Do some reading, Jon--then you can pass on this actual history (not your guesses about it) to your students.

Dave...thanks for the links, but you should do some reading too. I never said I didn't know "any" corporations; I said I didn't know of "many". And while the Boston Tea Party was also organized to protest the British East India Company (which was basically attached to the British Parliament, making it a monopoly of the worst kind), it was also due to the issue of what they believed was oppressive taxation (see the article on the Tea Act from 1773) and the complete lack of representation in Parliament as you well know. So no, to say it was purely to protest a corporation is not accurate. It was far deeper than that.

You should also read that link to the Highland Clearances you posted. Yes, "improvements" were cited (so some similarities), but it was part of a widespread change across the UK that was at times brutal and violent. It involved Parliament passing very oppressive laws and the use of military force. I haven't seen that here unless a 60-day notice with free moving assistance is considered violent these days. And for the record, my teaching license is in music, not history.

Funny how this dorm overcrowding story turned into a Silver Oaks story in the comments when the two are only tangentially related through the issue of student housing.

This comment thread seems awfully whiny... The situation(s) are pretty cut and dry - which doesn't mean people have to or do like it. Since when do people have a right to things that aren't theirs?

For readers of these comments, "Dave" (no relation) is the same commenter who said the residents of the Sunrise Apartments are the ones at fault in their own surprise evictions, since they should have somehow known earlier, from reading the newspaper or doing some other type of investigative reporting, that the property had been sold and scheduled for demolition. From the tenor of his comments across this site, I suppose that, had he lived at that time, he would probably have also supported "The Clearances," since "those people" didn't have a right to "things that aren't theirs." I guess such people can be found in all time periods.

http://kent.patch.com/articles/sunrise-apartment-tenants-forced-to-vacate-by-august-1

We appreciate all the comments, but let's please try to keep them civil — and refrain from personal attacks.

Dave, the record is above 60 I think.

FACT...only reason the elder, at Silver Oaks, are being forced out is so students can move in and that is the fact. It has everything to do with dorm overcrowding which was the subject matter.

That "fact" is stated in the letters I received from both Silver Oaks and Capstone. It is the ONLY reason we were told to move out.

Haven't you been following this story over the past weeks, as most other Northeast Ohio citizens with a conscience have? The information that the seniors were being evicted in order to fill the complex with college students was reported as early as July 23, 2011. College student housing is the only thing the Alabama-based Capstone Development Corp. does. And the Silver Oaks residents were certainly not invited to come live there again once the renovations have been completed.

"According to its website, Capstone Development Corp. is the division within Capstone Companies focused on the development of student housing communities, both on and off campus.

"The firm’s collective student housing development reflects more than $3 billion in project costs with more than 60,000 beds and 121 projects across the U.S.

"Its on-campus developments on 58 campuses totaling more than 36,500 beds in 77 projects and off-campus developments totaling more than 21,900 beds in 41 projects. It also has three campus-affiliated developments totaling more than 2,000 beds in three projects."

http://www.recordpub.com/news/article/5070617

yeh yeh even a heartless bastard like myself can read the news. what i was referring to was this statement, "It has everything to do with dorm overcrowding which was the subject matter." i read this as the "conspiracy theory" that KSU was behind it.

If the dorm overcrowding was the direct cause of what's going on at Silver Oaks, then it seems odd the university would wait for the 4th consecutive year of the dorms being over capacity to secretly get Silver Oaks to go to student housing and do it in a way that doesn't alleviate the problem until at the earliest, next fall. In reality, it's a combination of enrollment growth at KSU driving the demand for rental housing here combined with the declining occupancy and aging state of the buildings at Silver Oaks. I'd be very interested to know what the occupancy rate was at Silver Oaks when the announcement was first made. From what I've heard from people I know who lived there recently, there were quite a few empty apartments. If anyone can get some hard numbers, I would love to see them.

And actually, senior citizens likely could rent again at Silver Oaks, but I doubt they would want to. "Student Housing" is just who they market to. It's not an age-restricted community only for college students, which is not just 18-22 year olds. The difference is that there'd be tons of college students in the complex and rent would probably be a lot higher with a different contract structure. Again, I don't rejoice or find joy in saying that, but that's the reality we're probably facing.