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Tristan Piper, the only son of OSU student Megan Piper, finishes off a piece of watermelon before playing outside. The Pipers live in Orchard Court Apartments, an on-campus family housing facility that is used specifically for student parents.

Families find home on campus (part 3 of 3)

On-campus residents of OSU family housing work to create a home and a community out of resources available

By: Amanda Robbins

Posted: 3/14/07

While swinging, 4-year-old Tristan talks all about his favorite dinosaurs and what will happen if his feet touch the ground.

"Crocodiles, you can't get me," he said as his mother, Megan Piper, pushed him.

"Sharks, crocodiles and dinosaurs are all he talks about," Piper said.

Piper, a single mother working toward a degree in psychology and the vice president of the Student Parent Association, lives with her son in the on-campus family housing located on Southwest 35th Street and Northwest Orchard Avenue in the Orchard Court Apartments.

"We are very happy here," she said.

Piper pays $435 a month for her two-bedroom apartment, which covers all the bills except for electricity.

"All the families are very nice here," Piper said. "There are a lot of kids here for Tristan to play with, and it is very safe."

When Piper first moved to Oregon from San Diego, Calif., she was put on a waiting list for on-campus family housing.

"We were told there was a six-month waiting list for an apartment, but we got our place in two months," Piper said. "I think the waiting list has become longer since I moved in."

Piper is originally from Bend, where she attended the OSU Cascades Campus. She then moved to San Diego with Tristan's father, who is a Marine. When things didn't work out with him, she started looking at different colleges to finish her bachelor's degree.

"OSU seemed to be the best for cost efficiency," Piper said. "They provided me with the best services."

Along with the apartments, there are also three play structures located around the apartments that are kept in good condition.

"Most of the families respect everything around here," she said. "During the summer the play structures can get destroyed because the kids are always out and keeping busy."

Next term Piper and her son will move again, but this time out of the country - to study in Spain for the term. Luckily, Piper will get to keep her apartment when she returns.

"I have Tristan enrolled in the Spanish-speaking program at Kindercare," Piper said. "We are staying with a single mother of a 4-year-old when we go to Spain."

Living in the on-campus family housing gives them a small taste of what living in another country will be like.

"There are a lot of international families living here," Piper said. "We have a large variety of people and cultures."

Piper recently had one of her friends move out and was sad to see her leave.

"I used to have dinner with her a lot," she said. "I have dinner with the girls next to me sometimes too."

Piper really likes how OSU will help out the best they can with parents.

"It takes a little while to get in the system," she said. "You have to fight the waiting lists and paperwork, but once you get in, it is pretty easy."

Piper added that another one of the great things about living near campus is being close to family.

"My brother is a senior here, and Tristan goes over there for male bonding time," she said. "He has a lot of fun over there."

Eric Karbowski, a graduate student in wood science and the Family Housing Association president, is also a single father of three and agrees with Piper about the living arrangement.

"We have 50 percent international families and 50 percent American families living here," he said.

Karbowski loves what he is doing. He has a 10-year-old daughter and two sons, ages six and eight.

"I am on my own, and it is so fulfilling," he said. "I know I am more focused on school because I have a connection to the next generation. There is a purpose in what I am doing."

There are 104 families that live in the family housing - about two thirds of those families have children. The apartments range anywhere $435 for a two bedroom and $470 for a three bedroom.

"We have about 80 percent graduate students living here and 20 percent undergraduate," he said.

The families there try to get together and do some fun activities such as potlucks or dances.

"It is just a safe and happy place to live," he said. "Our children are like sponges. They pick up on all these experiences that they could never have if we were not students."

Some of the other advantages to living in the on-campus family housing include it only being five minutes from campus and having a bus that stops at the apartments.

"It is nice that all of our kids go to the same school so they all get on the bus together," Karbowski said. "It makes us feel like a community."

Karbowski also enjoys being around people at are experiencing the same things, like school.

"Everyone here has a very high IQ," he said. "It is a super smart community."

Sophia Scott, a single mother of 5-year-old Michael chose to go a different route for housing. She decided to look for a place for her and Michael to live off campus.

"I found this place myself," she said about her apartment on Northeast Lancaster Street.

When Scott arrived at OSU, she knew she needed help. She went to the Community Services Consortium, which is located on Second Street.

"The Community Services Consortium is a nonprofit community action agency that develops, manages and provides services and support to individuals and families who lack sufficient financial resources to meet their basic needs or to provide the kind of quality life they desire," according to their Web site.

They helped her find a place to live that was affordable. She now lives in Oak Crest Family Housing.

"I only pay $43 a month for this place," she said. "I qualified for help because I have a dependant and because we are a low income family."

The $43 only includes her rent, water and sewage so she still has to pay for phone, electricity, Internet and television, but the discounted rent helps her a lot.

"This is the best place we have lived," Karbowski said. "We are a very family-oriented community."