ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, July 23, 1996 TAG: 9607230026
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
COLUMN: reporter's notebook
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE
The official count* puts the New River Valley's apartment stock at 7,424 units. How many of those are occupied by transient students, and how many by local workers is hard to say.
But students out looking now are having a heck of a time finding apartments in Blacksburg, where an influx of freshmen to Virginia Tech is bumping students out of dormitories and into local apartments.
There's one group of students that faces a particularly daunting time finding a place to stay - they can't sign a year's lease on an apartment because most of them won't be here anywhere near a year. They're the international students who come to Tech's Language Institute, where students from around the world come for a few weeks or months to learn English.
"They're just here for a limited period of time," said Judy Snoke, who directs the institute. "The international students who are matriculating have the same problem transfer students have. They're coming in cold to a new community where they've never been before.
"They have no contact and they have to find housing. They're very much at a disadvantage," Snoke said.
This year, the housing shortage is more critical than in the past, because the language institute is starting the same day the rest of Tech's students start -Aug. 27. Usually, they come in mid-September.
"What has helped us in the past, there were always a few rooms in the dormitories our students could go in to," Snoke said. "I can't predict how that situation is."
Snoke's office has started beating the bushes in the hopes of finding housing for perhaps 20 students who will be arriving in the next month.
"Some of the students might be able to move in to an apartment in mid-September," Snoke said. "What will happen [is], by mid-September, everybody's going to know who didn't show up and the situation will be more fluid.
"But a lot of students, when they write and say, 'I'd like to come,' say 'Please send me information about homestays.'"
If you think you can help, give Snoke a call. Reach her at the Cranwell International Center at the corner of Tech's campus, (540) 231-6963.
*That's according to the 1996 Virginia Apartment and Management Association Directory, based on New River Valley Apartment Council members.
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