I first became interested in the topic of community relations and housing when I took my honors orientation class during the spring semester of my freshman year at Syracuse University. The name of the class was “From the Hill to the Hood,” taught by Professor Mark Muhammad. In the course, I was introduced to the Syracuse community; the community that exists beyond the borders of the University campus. As you gaze across the magnificent campus, you may not realize that Syracuse University resides in one of the poorest cities in the country. Then, when you walk off campus and see the houses that students in the off-campus community are living in, the reality sets in. Personally, I was compelled to do a study of students’ experiences living off-campus because mine has been marred with great difficulty. In the fall term of my junior year, my house was broken into, ransacked and robbed. (See photos below) Too add insult to injury, when our landlord returned our security deposit, we saw that she had charged us $500 to replace the door. We were penalized. Nearly 25% of our security deposit was forfeited because our landlord was too cheap to replace a door that was so old, it was falling apart and susceptible to a break-in. On a different level, I conducted a study of barriers to housing in Onondaga County, while interning for the Fair Housing Council of CNY during the fall term of my senior year. The work that I did for them inspired me to conduct a similar study for Syracuse University students living off-campus.
