Kenyon turns apartments into student housing

GAMBIER — Kenyon College’s decision to turn an apartment complex into student housing that has long served as housing for faculty, including junior faculty members new to Gambier, has created hardships for some who have essentially been evicted, a long-standing professor and a student organization leader both said.

The college, however, offered that the required move relates to finding students more housing when they return in August, given social distancing requirements related to COVID-19 precautions that necessitate more student space. Kenyon has also been involved in working with those being displaced to find rentals in Mount Vernon and elsewhere.

Kenyon College has owned McIlvaine Place Apartments on Rand Drive for decades, according to a Kenyon College story posted on the college website on the topic of housing. The complex, with several buildings, was originally used to house married students at Bexley Hall, Kenyon’s divinity school. After the divinity school left Kenyon, the apartments were mainly used for new faculty and visiting professors — with new faculty often staying at least a few years until they found new arrangements or bought a home.

“McIlvaine Apartment residents — a mix of faculty, staff and senior staff — were notified June 5 that they would not be able to renew their annual leases and would need to vacate by Aug. 2,” college spokesperson Mary Keister said. “The college has offered assistance to them in finding new housing, including at the new Lofts of Mount Vernon. These upscale apartments in downtown Mount Vernon were developed in partnership with the Ariel Development Foundation, Knox Community Hospital and Mount Vernon Nazarene University for housing KCH, MVNU, and Kenyon faculty and staff, and they open for the first time this summer.”

Keister added that a small number of McIlvaine residents expressed wanting to remain in Gambier, and the college offered assistance to them as well.

Edward Schortman, a long-standing Kenyon professor of anthropology, called the situation “an eviction.” He said he and his colleagues familiar with the McIlvaine situation know that the college needs space for students, and that part of it “makes sense.” What doesn’t make sense, he said, was the way it was handled — not allowing affected tenants to be a part of the decision-making nor even making them aware of what was happening to offer comments before it happened.

Nick Becker, co-chair of Kenyon Young Democratic Socialists of America, or KYDSA, said students need more housing and offered he did not believe Kenyon administration was acting “malicious.” But he said it’s another example of “top-down decision making” that shuts out input from the very people most affected by its action.

“If people don’t speak out this kind of decision-making will continue,” Becker said.

Schortman said the entire Kenyon Anthropology Department, consisting of seven people, wrote a letter to Kenyon about the potential hardships faced by junior faculty being displaced at McIlvaine. In particular, he said, was one junior faculty member from Jamaica who was left stranded for a time in her home country in March after airports were closed off related to COVID-19. She does not drive, so asking her to relocate to Mount Vernon is a hardship. There is a shuttle bus provided by Knox Area Transit, but its runs are limited.

He also said although The Lofts of Mount Vernon, which are yet to open, will be a potential option for some who are displaced, his concern is about pricing. Those renting at McIlvaine Place Apartments, which Kenyon College owns, pay about $650 per month for rent. And that rent is normally locked in for the period of up to four years for junior faculty who stay there, Schortman said. There is no guarantee, however, that rent at The Lofts will remain as it is for those who rent into their second year there, he added.

“You don’t just want to drop them off in Mount Vernon, give them a year at The Lofts and then say ‘Good luck,’” Schortman said.

Keister said up to 11 Kenyon faculty were affected by the move. But Becker questioned that number, saying McIlvaine has four buildings and about three times that number of apartments.

Schortman said displaced junior faculty always found a good home their first few years at Kenyon in McIlvaine apartments because it is located in a quiet, picturesque area between Kokosing Drive and Woodside Drive, with woods behind the apartments.

“It has been a good way of easing them into life at Kenyon,” he said, adding the college did not commit to the apartments reverting back to faculty and staff occupancy once the pandemic has been abated.

The needs of new faculty should always be a priority, Schortman said. The college does not want to be known as one making difficult decisions, however well-intentioned, without being inclusive. He and colleagues have suggested the formation of a college-wide committee that would collaborate with senior administration to gain consensus on important issues like housing. What has happened at McIlvaine has not been good for morale, he added. The decisions should have been made keeping in mind who among those displaced can drive, and who cannot; along with their financial situations.

“Once you make these kinds of decisions, it’s hard to undo them,” he said.

Becker said the McIlvaine situation is similar to Kenyon’s recent decision to shrink its budget by $19 million, including $4.9 million in savings achieved by suspending the college’s contributions to all employees’ retirement plans for the upcoming budget year, as well as retiree health care programs. Although Keister said those decisions involved multiple committees providing input, Becker said not enough input by those truly affected was sought. Schortman called the budget reductions “paternalistic” — well-meaning yet exclusionary.

“We recognize moving to a new home is rarely easy, and we are grateful to these residents for their understanding,” Keister said. “The college is committed to assisting these residents through the moving process, by helping them secure new housing as well as by assisting with the actual moving of their belongings.”