By Nate Hawley
BYU Off-Campus Housing”s recent decision not to renew the Branbury Park apartment complex”s status as BYU-approved housing was warranted, though not easy, BYU officials said.
Garry Briggs, manager of Off-Campus Housing, said the decision was made last week. Details as to why the complex has been taken off the approved list are not being released out of respect to the people involved.
“There are some residential living standards violations, which includes the Honor Code, and we just haven”t felt that the management has made a genuine effort to correct the environment,” Briggs said.
Off-Campus Housing has responsibility to ensure all approved apartment complexes not only comply with the Honor Code, but actively support and enforce it. Only by demonstrating support for the Honor Code can a complex retain its approved status.
“We have a charge from the university that our single students living on or off campus should live in an environment that is conducive to their moral and spiritual growth as well as providing them an environment that will lead to their best academic performance,” Briggs said.
Branbury Park owner Richard Knapp, a BYU graduate, bought the complex in 1992.
He said he didn”t understand why BYU didn”t renew the complex”s approval.
“My concern is that we”re being made an example of,” Knapp said. “My concern is that it”s not based in fact, but in chatter. … Clearly the administration wants to make a statement and they”re using us as an example.”
Carri Jenkins, assistant to the president for University Communications, said Off-Campus Housing followed its standard procedure by looking deeply into the situation and working directly with the owner to address specific concerns before making a decision.
“We tried to get the facts from both sides and all the parties concerned,” Briggs said. “We would be in a terrible mess if we operated on hearsay.”
Off-Campus Housing sent Knapp a letter in July 2003 informing him of the possibility of losing approved status. The letter noted an opportunity for the complex to retain its approval status if changes were made to improve the situation. Knapp said he made a proposal that included adding more lights in the parking lot and starting a resident advisor system.
“We”ve seen the writing on the pages, but we haven”t seen the action,” Briggs said.
BYU students make up about half of the student population at Branbury. Even before the announcement, the complex was not near full capacity.
The opportunity still exists for Branbury to regain its approved status. In the past, other large complexes that lost approved status corrected the problems and became fully BYU approved. Briggs said he looks forward to working with Branbury to overcome the current barriers.
Knapp said he is excited to begin the process of re-aligning the complex with BYU standards. He said he has many ideas and hopes to come to an agreement with BYU in the near future.
“We are proposing the idea of perhaps having three of the seven buildings at Branbury be approved or be set aside for approved housing,” Knapp said. “That way there will be a place both for BYU students and other single students.”
Briggs said as soon as Branbury begins to make the changes and show evidence of improvement, Off-Campus Housing will start to re-evaluate the situation.
The announcement by Off-Campus Housing isn”t designed to force all the BYU students out of the complex immediately.
Students have the choice of remaining in the complex until their contracts expire or giving management five-day notice of their intent to move. Students who choose to remain are not in violation of the Honor Code.
Michelle Knapp, wife of owner Richard Knapp, said the complex is offering a discount to all BYU students who decide to stay in Branbury through the end of their contracts. Only six students have decided to leave the complex.
“A lot of BYU students have been adamant about staying,” she said.
Response from students has been mixed. Some said this should have happened earlier, while other students don”t see a problem with the complex.
Carolee Ahping, a junior from Pitman, N.J., lives in Branbury and supports BYU”s action. She said even before Branbury lost its approved status, she was looking for a way to move out and find a better atmosphere.
“I have seen stuff going on around here, and it”s definitely not BYU approved,” she said.
Shannon Heywood, a freshman from Bakersfield, Calif., and Wendy Gailey, a UVSC freshman also from Bakersfield, are roommates at Branbury. Both said they hadn”t seen anything against the Honor Code.
“It”s really quiet. I haven”t seen anything,” Heywood said. “We would be able to tell if there were big parties.”
