The community of Forest Park has been subjected to 30 years of neglect by the university, according to both residents and administration.
With rotted stairs and wood buildings with no sprinkler systems, some housing at Forest Park has already been torn down due to unlivable conditions that are beyond repair. The buildings that remain, housing graduate and international students, are headed for the same outcome if university policies do not change.
On Wednesday, Friends of Forest Park organized a demonstration on T-Hall lawn to create visibility of a much-neglected community and to put pressure on the administration.
Cardboard boxes were set up on the lawn to represent the housing at Forest Park. People laid inside the boxes with signs around them, reading, "Are you OK with poverty on your campus?", "30 years of neglect," and "Hey Prez, take a paycut!"
A large banner hung between two trees above the faux houses, reading, "Future of family housing at UNH -- Defend Forest park," while volunteers handed out flyers with information on the current situation in the Forest Park community.
Forest Park provides housing for "newly appointed faculty members, married students, and students with dependent children," according to the UNH Department of Housing Web site. There are also a large number of international students and families who reside at Forest Park.
Because of rent increases in the last few years, many families living in the Forest Park community have been struggling to get by.
Rob Wolff, a senior philosophy major at UNH and an advocate for Forest Park, commented that Forest Park residents have been forced to decide between paying rent or feeding their children.
"It is an issue of priority," he said. "The administration needs to prioritize the dignities of the families on campus. Until things change, we will continue to put pressure on them [the administration]."
One way Friends of Forest Park is putting the pressure on is through demonstrations such as the one held Wednesday, in which members not only set up a demonstration, but also served eviction notices as a symbolic gesture to three key administrators: director of housing William Conk, provost and vice president of academic affairs Bruce Mallory, and interim president J. Bonnie Newman. As of yet, there has been no response by the administration.
"Friends of Forest Park do not plan to meet with them until we hear from them that their position on this issue has changed," said Rob Wolff. "We will continue to raise public awareness about issues surrounding affordable family housing and the situation for international and graduate students. We will continue our efforts to shame the administration into action."
Liz Wolff, another advocate for the Forest Park community, said, "They are clearly a marginalized population on campus."
This population, according to Rob Wolff and many others, is "essential to the mission of the university" because of the diversity that resides there and the number of TAs, researchers and graduate students living in Forest Park.
Graduate students provide an enormous amount of support for the university by providing teaching assistance and research, which the university relies upon and benefits from greatly.
Friends of Forest Park claim that they have been lied to by the administration and that promises have been broken.
Sarah Gormady, a resident of Forest Park who is majoring in Russian and has just been accepted into the McNair program, said, "I don't expect the administration to be understanding of the situation in Forest Park because they don't come to Forest Park. They have lived privileged lives and cannot possibly understand."
Gormady said the part most upsetting to her is that the administration continually suggests that receiving a higher education requires sacrifice from students' families.
"What I would like the administration to consider is that most students at UNH are asking their families to tighten their belts and live economically," said Gormady. "What Forest Park residents have been asking of their family members is so much more. We ask them not to get sick, we don't have insurance. We ask them to bathe in dirty brown water and live in horrid apartments, we ask them not to eat because there is no more food. At Forest Park we are asking our families to sacrifice their health for our education; that is disgusting. I have lost 10 pounds. I have lost energy. I have lost almost all hope; I wonder, what has my daughter lost?"
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