While students currently living in the Yorkshire Apartments are glad that the new OU Traditions Square Complex will replace Yorkshire, some are concerned that the late completion date of the complex forces them to be without a home for the summer.

Tim Click, a biochemistry graduate student who has lived at Yorkshire for the past three and a half years, said the new construction of OU Traditions Square is good because it will be an improvement from Yorkshire apartments, but it's also bad because they expect residents to move out in May and then move back in three months later.

Click said he expects a massive rush of people from Yorkshire trying to find new apartments by May 15, when current leases at Yorkshire expire.

Students living at Yorkshire Apartments must vacate their homes by May 19, according to a letter sent to Yorkshire residents by Managerial Associate Carrie Irwin in September. The Yorkshire Apartments, which were originally constructed in 1965, will then be demolished to make way for the second phase of the OU Traditions Square Complex.

"The first construction phase of the new complex... has an anticipated completion date set for next summer," said Amy Davenport, former director of Housing and Food Services, in an e-mail.

The first phase of the Traditions Square Complex will be located south of the College of Law and west of Kraettli Apartments, and will include eight buildings with a total of 576 beds, Davenport said.

Current Yorkshire residents will be given first priority to move to other university housing when their leases expire, Davenport said.

Yves Sivuilu, computer engineering senior and Yorkshire resident, expressed confusion as to why Housing and Food Services decided to wait until the end of the summer to complete the Traditions Square Complex.

It would have been better if the new one was done before residents at Yorkshire have to move out, he said.

Sivuilu said finding other housing is difficult for students because they are so busy.

"It's a hassle when you have school and work to worry about," he said.

Michael Heaton, assistant to the director at Housing and Food Services, said other factors played into determining the construction schedule of the Traditions Square Complex.

"The construction schedule was determined in part by the availability of personnel needed to complete the construction," Heaton said in an e-mail.

He also said that along with the letter sent to Yorkshire residents in September, Housing and Food Services included a survey that gave summer housing in campus residence halls as an option.

Kayci Hale, pre-nursing sophomore and Yorkshire resident, said she felt assured that she could find housing either in Norman or at other university apartments, such as Kraettli or Parkview.

"They're going to have housing for us," she said.

Hale said that she was glad that the Traditions Square Complex would be replacing Yorkshire.

"I just think it'll be nicer living arrangements, more updated appliances and more beautiful buildings for the campus," Hale said.

Sivuilu said he agreed Yorkshire needed to be updated.

"I personally think that it's a good thing that they're doing it because this place is not in really good condition," he said.

Davenport said the second phase of construction for the OU Traditions Square Complex, to be built where Yorkshire stands now, will be completed by summer 2006.
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