Dear President Tilghman,

We are writing to you today regarding the rents that have been proposed
for the new Lawrence Apartments, due to be completed during the coming
academic year.  As the representative body of the graduate students at
Princeton, we would like to express concern that most of the rents vastly
exceed the level that a frugal graduate student can afford.

The GSG has taken an interest in the construction process since the
apartments were first proposed.  We were informed that their purpose was
specifically to increase the graduate student housing on campus and
happily anticipated their completion.  As you are aware, the former GSG
Chair Scott Miller took sufficient interest in the project to attend a
Princeton Regional Planning Board Meeting and made positive comments.
This is a practice we would like to continue.

At a meeting between University Administrators and GSG Officers (April 5,
2002), the Provost was specifically asked whether the rents would be
affordable.  She stated it would be foolish to make the new housing
unaffordable to graduate students.  At a CPUC meeting (May 16, 2002), she
further stated, "Next year, we will not leave anyone out in the cold."
Today we are writing to encourage you to keep that promise.

We have tried to consider reasonably and rationally the proposed rents.
We realize that these new apartments were built to a higher standard than
other available graduate student housing, and accordingly it is not
unreasonable that they may cost a small amount more than other available
housing stock.  We also recognize that a small fraction of the
approximately 2000 enrolled graduate students receive exceptional
fellowships and stipends, and may be able to afford the rents as proposed.
Some post-generals graduate students in Division IV may also be able to
afford the rents.  We acknowledge that increasing the stock for this group
is a positive for graduate students and the university.  But this is where
our common ground ends.

A majority of graduate students make less than 1800 dollars per month.  It
is this group that we are most concerned about, not only because they are
the majority, but because they do not have the means to access the market.
We have attached two tables.  The first demonstrates that, for four
typical graduate students, most of the proposed rents significantly exceed
their monthly income on a ten-month basis and in some cases costs exceed
income by nearly a factor of two!  In nearly every case, except the few
mentioned above, these proposed rents exceed 40% of the stipends offered
by the university.  Our inquiry into this matter has found that the State
of New Jersey has provided recommendations that housing cost "not more
than 30%" of one's income.  The second table shows that the affordable
range for rents is from 350 to 550 dollars per month.

We further note that residents of new undergraduate housing are not
required to pay more than their cohorts who draw into less expensive
housing.  We would like to point out that introducing a broad disparity in
housing prices has the undesirable effect of segregating students by
wealth, or even by academic division, contradicting a founding principle
of the Graduate School in establishing the Graduate College and in
opposition to the ideology of the four-year residential colleges for
undergraduates.  We have also received anecdotal reports of prospective
graduate students deciding against Princeton due to the lack of affordable
housing.

We recognize and appreciate that constructing new housing is expensive.
At the May CPUC meeting, Dean Russel implicated debt service as one source
of the exorbitant rents.  Last fall the Trustees, upon recommendation of
the President and the Priorities Committee, authorized extending repayment
of the debt to compensate for the increased cost of undergraduate
financial aid.  A similar compromise may be instituted here as the same
issues are involved, namely the debt service and the affordability of
higher education.

We know that those in government and administration are rarely thanked for
their service and we know that you put in many hours in our behalf and in
behalf of the university as a whole.  We at times wonder, as we are sure
you must, whether the things we do make any difference in the lives of
real people.  Rest assured that this is an opportunity for you to make a
real and significant difference in the lives of graduate students.

Over the past couple of years, we as the Graduate Student Government have
tried to forge bridges of trust.  We regret that any policy that sets the
price of university housing above that which can reasonably be afforded
will erode our trust.  We strongly encourage you to reevaluate the
proposed rents and find the means to reduce the costs into the affordable
range below 550 dollars per month or the means to raise the stipends of
all graduate students by the 200 or 300 dollars per month.  We cannot
stand idly by while a policy that will directly hurt graduate students is
put forth.

We look forward to establishing a dialogue and working with you to find a
creative and constructive resolution to this problem.  We await with
anticipation your response.

Respectfully,

The Assembly of the Graduate Student Government