Queens College will for the first time in its 70-year history be able to offer its students on-campus residences in the fall. They will be the only City University of New York (CUNY) college to be able to attract students from overseas or out of state who want or need to live on-site.
Despite much vocal community opposition, supported by some local politicians, Queens College (QC) picked a quiet area on its own campus between the Rosenthal Library and Fitzgerald Gymnasium to build the new dorms.
Residents had raised fears about extra cars on the streets around the Flushing school and pointed to the partying that goes on at other schools.
The institution maintained that they will be able to control the dorm dwellers and should be able to accommodate their cars if they have any.
We think the dorms – named the Summit – are a great improvement and will bring QC up to the level of St. John’s University as a destination school offering the complete college experience in Queens.
QC has inquiries from many foreign students in the arts, music and sciences only to lose them due the lack of affordable housing in the neighboring area. Hailed by the 2009 Princeton Review as “academically terrific,” the housing will add that missing dimension to an increasingly superior school.
The Summit will have fully furnished two- and four-bedroom suites featuring wireless Internet, fitness center, laundry facility, lounge and media area, music practice rooms and two full baths, in-room control of heating and air conditioning, kitchenettes with full-size refrigerator, stove/oven, microwave and sink.
According to QC it has received more than 300 applications for the 500 beds well ahead of the Summit’s opening August 1. For more information, call the Summit office at 718-997-4881 or check out the web at www.qc.cuny.edu/thesummit.
Dual-occupancy rooms start at $4,250 per person for the semester; single-occupancy rooms start at $6,250 – maintaining QC’s affordability, since the current undergraduate tuition for New York State resident students is only $4,000.
We say bravo to QC for sticking to its guns and building a new revenue stream for the future, especially in these uncertain economic times.
