by Save UF Grad Housing
Despite three years of complaints from students, faculty, and alumni, the University of Florida is continuing to move forward with its plans to close and demolish 44 brick buildings and hundreds of trees encompassing the entirety of Maguire Village and University Village South (UVS) along SW 34th St.
This tragedy has been compounded by the UF Housing Department’s lack of transparency and respect for the students living there (who are scheduled to be evicted at the end of this semester), which includes not providing documents, lying to committees, and disrespecting students’ rights.
The current population of those left at the village has been reduced to just a couple dozen, leaving over 300 beautiful, usable apartments left to languish while over 800 students remain on the waitlist for this sought-after graduate housing.
Indeed, UF’s own studies show that Maguire Village and UVS are the highest-rated places to live at UF (undergrad dorms included), and furthermore are a unique treasure considering almost no other school in Florida has a place quite like it dedicated to graduate students and their families.
As former Director of International Student Services at UF, Debra Anderson recently wrote in a letter, “Removing graduate housing communities that have functioned to serve as homes away from home, in an environmentally inviting space, and convenient to campus, for over 50+ years and largely consisting of 70% international graduate students, which served as a reprieve and interactive space for students/families, seems short-sighted, at the least.”
We are hoping more letters like this to UF, along with group support including Student Government and Faculty Senate Resolutions, can help change UF’s mind before it is too late.
What can you do to help?
1) Sign and share our Petition to immediately reopen Maguire Village and UVS, found here: www. change.org/saveufgradhousing
2) Contact UF’s Board of Trustees and your local state representatives and ask them to reverse the decision to destroy these historic places.
3) Consider volunteering with the campaign — we are in need of organizers, graphic artists, social media liaisons, researchers, and any other help you can provide.
Simply email: SaveUFGradHousing@gmail.com, or visit our website at: www.saveufgradhousing.com to volunteer or learn more. Thank you!