Established 1826 — Oldest College Newspaper West of the Alleghenies

Opinion | Subleasing recources need to be more accesible for students

Editorial Board

Miami University students seeking to study abroad for a semester or graduate a semester early often struggle to sublease their apartment or house in time. Many students have to choose between not studying abroad or paying for a semester of rent while away from campus.

The editorial board of The Miami Student views subletting difficulties as something the university should attempt to fix.

If the university wants study abroad programs to continue to grow in popularity, issues such as subletting should be manageable.

Students should not have to worry about having to pay a semester lease and study abroad fees at the same time. The Study Abroad Office needs to help make the semester transition more feasible and work with students to find people who need to sublet. A student might not be able to study abroad if he or she cannot find someone to take over a lease. This would in turn cause study abroad programs to lose business.

We acknowledge that there are avenues students can utilize to make searching for a person to sublet. However, the resources that are available are either outdated or not widely advertised to students. For instance, the Associated Student Government (ASG) launched a website for students seeking someone to sublet. This website, muohio.loc101.com, attempts to be an online message board that lists houses seeking roommates or someone to sublease. But the problem is this site is not easy to find and it is not updated. Associated Student Government (ASG) needs to reclaim this site and advertise it better. They need to invest in methods such as reaching out to students at the beginning of semesters with flyers at residence halls or emails. If ASG took the time to create this site, time needs to be set apart to maintain it. The website is a great idea, but it is not being properly executed.

We encourage the Study Abroad Office, ASG and the Office of Off-Campus Affairs to communicate to meet the overlooked demands of students. The Study Abroad Office should tell interested students about the website or other viable resources and work with them to find someone to sublease. With these groups working together jointly, stress to graduate or study abroad may be diminished.