Ithaca College’s Office of Residential Life introduced room buyouts in an email to the campus community Oct. 9. This will allow students to purchase a vacancy in their double room in any residential building for either the spring or current fall semester or both.
Room buyouts are only available to those already in a double room without a roommate who wish to keep the vacancy. A student can only buyout one space in a double room and buyouts for single rooms in apartments are unavailable.
The college has offered this before, most recently during Spring 2022 as a result of low enrollment following the COVID-19 pandemic. Ryan McCarty, housing specialist at Residential Life’s Central Office, clarified information regarding the buyouts.
“There are a large number of vacancies on campus due to class size,” McCarty said via email. “We expect class sizes to grow as the last ‘Covid Class’ will be graduating this upcoming May.”
McCarty said ResLife uses data projections to account for the incoming students for Spring 2024 and they do not currently foresee there being any issue in housing availability.
“A small number of students have taken the opportunity to buyout their room,” McCarty said.
Once a buyout has been approved, it will be charged to the student’s account. The billing can happen at any point during the spring or fall semester, and if both semesters were purchased, there will be separate billing for each one. Fall semester buyouts will cost $330, and spring semester buyouts will cost $660. If a student purchases a buyout for both semesters the total would be $990.
The extra furniture in the rooms will not be removed after a room buyout. Students will have access to the entire room and its contents.
The Room Buyout Request Form is available on the college’s housing portal where students can select the term they would like to purchase a buyout for and then wait for approval from ResLife staff. There is no deadline for purchasing a room buyout and IC Housing will process requests on a weekly basis.
