IBS students move in to Watch Factory apartments

University President Frederick Lawrence will be joined by some new, young neighbors in the Watch Factory building this year, as eight graduate students from the International Business School have moved into apartments there, according to a BrandeisNOW press release.

According to Senior Vice President for Administration Mark Collins, the Department of Community Living initially asked for additional housing for 20 students in the middle of August, and the University looked at several potential facilities before settling on the building where Lawrence recently bought an apartment.

“The original request I made to Waltham was for 10 apartments,” said Collins in an interview with the Justice. As the number of students needing housing dropped, he said, “that number was reduced to 9, then 7, then 5, and we finally, just a week before opening, [we] contracted for four total units, two of which we have rented for the entire year, on a 10 month lease.”

The other two apartments have been rented until Dec. 31, as they will be used by students who are part of a program during only the first semester, according to Collins.

Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Andrew Flagel said in the BrandeisNOW release that “if we could come up with a reasonable alternative, we would prefer not to turn down these students on the wait list who had very strong reasons for wanting to be on campus.”

According to the BrandeisNOW article, “Brandeis is able to make the space available without a significant budgetary impact.” Collins said that the apartments cost approximately $2,400 or $2,500 a month.

Flagel also said that President Lawrence is looking forward to having students live so close by.

“Fred’s excitement really has been about the whole dynamism of bringing the residents so close to campus and into the heart of Waltham.”

—Sam Mintz