International students in graduate school at the University of Rhode Island are frustrated with the lack of support in finding new housing as the university plans to demolish Graduate Village.
URI announced plans to begin demolishing the Graduate Village at the end of this academic year in May 2026, as previously reported by The Good Five Cent Cigar. The plans will relocate 136 residents, 111 of which are currently enrolled as graduate students, according to Assistant Vice President of Housing and Residential Life and Student Development Thomas Cooley. Previous Cigar reporting indicated 400 students being affected. The other 25 include immediate family members and post doctoral researchers.
The university plans to move the graduate students into the Gateway Apartments. There are 52 registered Graduate Village leaseholders, according to an FAQ sent out by Housing and Residential Life on Oct. 17. There are 24 leases available in the Gateway Apartments and it can currently house up to 71 residents. Residents of the Graduate Village can apply to live in Gateway, but residents are chosen through a lottery system. Only current leaseholders are eligible to enter the lottery.
The Graduate Village has been operating at around half of its capacity, according to Cooley, due to the age of the facilities. The village has two or three bedroom apartments capable of housing four and five people, respectively, according to the village’s FAQ page. Persons are able to sign a lease for the village as long as they are a full-time graduate student, a visiting scholar, a postdoctoral fellow, or in certain circumstances, a matriculating full-time undergraduate student. Residents are able to have roommates, who must be the immediate family of the leaseholder, a matriculating graduate student or meet requirements for lease holders.
A doctoral student at URI who asked to remain anonymous for fear of complications with his visa first heard of the plans last March.
“The first time I heard that the grad village was being demolished was before this summer,” the student said. “They’ve been saying that grad village will be renovated, but what we thought was they were going to renovate the current buildings and still allow us to live here and switch us around.”
The university decided to demolish the entire village at once due to constraints on money and time, according to Cooley.
“Our revenues have to outpace our costs,” Cooley said. “So any costs have to go back and essentially set our rate. When you look at opportunities to rebuild that site, how do we get the best product that has longevity and meets our design standards as a university.”
The doctoral student has lived in the village since 2022, when he began his program. He rents out two rooms in a three bedroom unit for him and his three family members. When the student arrived at URI, he joined the waitlist to become a leaseholder in Graduate Village. Three years later, he still has not made it to the top of the list.
For the student, the Graduate Village is the most affordable housing he can access. International students are not able to work on student visas and cannot earn any additional income.
The student receives a stipend as part of his graduate assistantship. Benefits of graduate assistantships vary, but can include full tuition waivers, insurance waivers and parking waivers. There are three categories of stipends. The doctoral student is in the highest category and earns $2,097 a month, around $1,000 every two weeks.
He pays around $1,200 a month for two rooms in the Graduate Village. The pricing for the Gateway Apartments has not been confirmed, but current residents pay $5,169 per semester for a single room, according to the HRL website.
The student has looked for housing off-campus, but has had little success. Rental companies often ask for proof of income and many of them do not consider the stipends sufficient. Many of them also ask for a credit score, something the student cannot get as an international student.
“I’ve been asking [the school] if they can be a co-signer for us or provide a reference or something that would help us get an off campus lease,” the student said. “But they said they basically cannot give that at the moment.”
In an email sent out to graduate students on Oct. 17, Housing and Residential Life issued the following statement: “While the University’s Housing and Residential Life (HRL) office has not traditionally provided landlord reference letters, in light of the upcoming closure of Graduate Village, HRL will provide a landlord verification letter upon request and with written consent.”
Another international graduate student affected by the demolition has also asked to remain anonymous for fear of visa complications.
The graduate student has been frustrated with the lack of support that he has received from the school in trying to find alternative housing. Since he is not a leaseholder, he is not able to join the Gateway Apartments lottery. He has instead decided to try and find off campus housing.
The university hosted an off campus housing fair in September, inviting local realtors to speak with graduate students. The graduate student struggled to find housing for less than $1,200 a month.
Like the doctoral student, because the graduate student is an international student, he is unable to earn income besides his stipend.
“This is something I expect from the administration because I have experienced it in other schools,” the graduate student said. “But that was back in my country. It is kind of disheartening when this is happening here again.”
Not only are graduate students having to cope with higher housing costs, they also have to navigate transportation. Graduate Village currently sits across from Fraternity Circle and the Keaney Parking Lots, meaning students do not need a car to access campus.
The graduate student is worried that if he moves off campus, he’ll be forced to purchase a car. In addition to that, he also needs to buy groceries, which may bump his monthly costs up to $1,600.
Cooley says that he understands that this can be a difficult transition, but the school is working hard to try and supply affordable, convenient solutions for graduate students.
“What we’re looking at is there’s a Greek chapter on campus that has some vacancies,” Cooley said. “We have a vendor that has off campus properties that has reached out. Instead of having [support be] one off or individual based, we’re using the main campus site as the conduit to hold that information. We’re trying to find other relatable housing experiences in the area.”
The graduate student spoke to other Graduate Village residents who are considering transferring or dropping out of their programs.
“The exact example you’re talking about is dependent upon the student and where they are,” Cooley said. “Students leave the university all the time. We’re hoping this is not a driver, we’re going to continue to be a support system. We’re going to continue to work with students and try to make this not be a deciding factor.”
