Over a year has passed since the University of Illinois at Chicago had the last of the tenants and property owners evicted from the old open-air market around Maxwell Street. Now, in the latest twist in a land-use struggle that’s gone on for almost a decade, the university’s evicting some students from a dormitory built on the land–even though it once claimed it had to destroy the Maxwell Street Market for the sake of students.
The first phase of construction in the cleared area is now under way, and UIC and private developers have been putting up mostly pricey town houses and condos–eventually 900 units will be built. So far the Robinson dorm, which opened last August, is the only facility to have been built specifically for students, though UIC officials insist it won’t be the last. “The exact identity of the new buildings has not yet been determined, but they will be there,” says Mark Rosati, associate chancellor for public affairs. “The campus is facing a space need.”
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Jennifer Smith didn’t know this history when she transferred from Southern Illinois University to UIC in 1998. But she quickly saw that UIC hadn’t done much to provide housing for students with children: “SIU was way ahead of UIC on these things.”
It also struck them as odd that the university said they were part of a pilot program. “It was like they weren’t really committed to providing permanent housing for students with families,” says Smith. “By calling it a pilot program it was more like an experiment that might end any day.” And they thought it was curious that all of the women chosen for the program were African-American single moms. “We wondered where the white or Hispanic parents were,” says Bonita Harrison, another student in the dorm.
Smith finds it ironic that they’re being moved to the very dormitory Martin originally said was inappropriate for students with families. “They say they’re looking out for us,” she says, “but I don’t think this is about our needs at all.”
