6.2 Housing

In order to preserve its residential character, the College offers some assistance to members of the faculty seeking to find places to live in Gambier. There are a number of privately-owned rental apartments and houses in the Village of Gambier and nearby Mount Vernon suitable for faculty. Information about College-owned housing is available from the Manager of Finance Office Operations by calling 740-427-5172.

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Certain administrative positions in the College may require that the incumbent reside within the Village of Gambier as a condition of employment. In these instances the College will assist in securing appropriate housing and under some circumstance may assign a College-owned residence to an employee. In the latter event, this assignment must be approved by the President and, by contract, the Board of Trustees.

All other College-owned residences are available for rental to full-time members of the faculty and administration (or two part-time members who share a full-time position and wish to occupy a single housing unit) according to the following regulations:

A. Apartments will be rented to members of the faculty and administration in their first year of appointment on a first-come, first-served basis. Once assigned, occupancy in a particular unit will be guaranteed for four years. If in any year there are more vacancies than first-year appointees who wish College rental housing, other members who are in their first four years of appointment are eligible for assignment on a first-come, first-served basis.

New members unable to obtain apartment housing in the first year of their appointment will have priority in obtaining housing in their second, third, or fourth years, with the understanding that such rental is available for only the first four years of their appointment. After four years of occupancy or fourth year of appointment, whichever comes earlier, the occupant will vacate in favor of more recent appointees. 

If, after all applications for housing are filled, apartments remain unoccupied, they may be occupied by part-time members for a maximum of one year.

B. Current occupants of College-owned apartments whose eligibility for such apartments expires June 30, and who have one or more years remaining of eligibility for College-owned housing, may, if apartments are still available on June 1, be assigned an apartment for one year. Priority among persons in this category will be determined by the date of the member's first duly executed contract. Those wishing to apply for the above mentioned consideration should inform the Manager of Finance Office Operations, prior to June 1 in the year the current lease expires.

C. "First come" will be determined by the receipt in the office of the Manager of Finance Office Operations of a letter of confirmation from the President's office that an employment contract has been duly executed. A copy of the College Housing Policy, covering allocation of College-owned residences, will be mailed with the proposed employment contract. Names of persons not wishing to be on the housing list will be removed from the list only when such desire is confirmed in writing to the Manager of Finance Office Operations.

D. Members may sublet apartments or houses under the following conditions:

  1. Subleases must first be offered to persons (in order of priority) on the housing waiting list.
  2. The sublease period may not exceed the period of the sublessor's authorized occupancy.
  3. Rents must be at the rates established by the College.
  4. The sublessor is ultimately responsible for payment of all rents, utilities and damage, if any.

E. Additions, improvements or changes of a fixed or permanent nature may be made to the College buildings only with permission, and such changes become the property of the College. They may not be altered or removed without permission. All plantings of trees, shrubbery, and the like must be done with the permission of the Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds. Trees must not be removed from College property or trimmed without the consent of the President. Plantings of trees and shrubs are permanent attachments to the property, and title rests with the College. Lawn-mowing service is offered by the College only for those residences located in campus or park areas normally maintained as lawns. No hand work or trimming is performed by the College. All other tenants are responsible for care of their lawns throughout the year. College buildings are insured against damage by fire and windstorm. Loss or damage by fire or theft to the personal property of occupants is the responsibility of the occupant.

F. A person whose membership in the faculty has terminated is required to vacate College housing by the end of the fiscal year, June 30. Rent must be paid in advance, on or before the fifth day of the month, unless the member chooses to have the College deduct the rent from his/her paycheck. The member must then sign a payroll-deduction authorization card at the Manager of Finance Office Operations’ office, and the rent deductions will be made from checks issued at the end of the month covered. When a member is on leave, the College undertakes to offer him/her housing in which he/she has expressed an interest, if it becomes available. The College cannot undertake, however, to defer assignment of a unit until the member's return.

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Amended April 1997

WHEREAS, Kenyon College is interested in assisting qualified members of the Kenyon College faculty and administration in the acquisition or construction of a personal residence within a ten-mile radius of the Gambier, Ohio, Post Office; and

WHEREAS, various mortgage lending institutions in Knox County, Ohio, have offered to grant real estate mortgage loans to otherwise qualified applicants from the Kenyon College faculty or administration in amounts up to 100 percent of the contract price or100 percent of the actual appraisal conducted by said lending institutions (or, in the case of a refinanced mortgage, the guarantee amount may not exceed the unpaid balance of the mortgage being refinanced) upon the following terms and conditions:

  1. To qualify, a faculty member (MORTGAGOR) must be in a tenure-track appointment. To qualify, members of the administration must be in the exempt classification.
  2. All mortgages guaranteed shall be mortgages which have been determined to be good lending risks by a Knox County lending institution using standard loan evaluation procedures to determine the risk, and said mortgages may not be assignable by the lending institution without the express written consent of Kenyon College.
  3. Kenyon College will guarantee all monthly payments and any unpaid balance on all real estate mortgage loans until said loans are reduced to 70 percent of the appraisal of the participating lending institutions, or, in the case of construction loans, 70 percent of the contract price, at which time the College guarantee will be released. The appraisal referred to in this Resolution shall, at all times, mean the standard real estate loan appraisal performed by the lending institution for all real estate mortgage loans made to the general public applying the same standards as for all other similar mortgage loans. In the case of a refinanced mortgage the College's guarantee is released when the unpaid balance of the loan is as defined above in the original mortgage loan.
  4. All such real estate mortgage loans made hereunder shall be on a monthly reduction basis at the market rate of interest which shall be the then current rate of interest and closing costs then charged the general public, and the loan amortization period may not exceed twenty-five years. The loan amortization shall be a standard (straight) monthly amortization using a 360- or 365-day year with no balloon payment arrangements or periods in which interest only is paid. In the case of a refinanced mortgage, the amortization period may not exceed the remaining repayment period on the loan being refinanced.
  5. MORTGAGORS who accept the College's home mortgage loan guarantee shall agree:
    1. to enter into an arrangement whereby the College will have the first right of refusal to purchase properties on which the mortgage guarantee has been provided;
    2. to enter into a payroll-deduction agreement with Kenyon College whereby Kenyon College shall deduct the monthly mortgage payment from said MORTGAGOR(S) regular paycheck and pay the mortgage payment directly to the lending institution;
    3. to execute a statement acknowledging that the loan guarantee by Kenyon College is not an employment contract with Kenyon College and does not represent a promise on the part of Kenyon College to employ the MORTGAGOR(S) for the period covered by the loan guarantee.
  6. All mortgages guaranteed by Kenyon College shall include the requirement that real estate taxes and insurance premiums be placed in escrow and that each monthly mortgage payment shall include 1/12 of the annual real estate taxes on the real estate and 1/12 of the fire and casualty insurance premiums for coverage on the improvements on the real estate.
  7. The lending institution and the MORTGAGOR(S) shall agree, that in case of default on the mortgage, the lending institution shall, before taking any action to foreclose on the mortgage, notify Kenyon College, in writing, and give Kenyon College sixty (60) days to exercise the right to purchase all interests of the lending institution in the mortgage and note and obtain an assignment of the mortgage and the note secured by the mortgage by paying the lending institution the balance due on the said note including principal and accrued interest. This right to purchase the mortgage and note shall not preclude any other rights Kenyon College may have under the law. In the event that Kenyon College does not exercise its right to purchase the note and mortgage within the allotted sixty (60) days, and the note and mortgage remains in default for a period of ninety (90) days (beginning with the initial day of default) the lending institution agrees that it shall begin foreclosure proceedings against the MORTGAGOR(S).
  8. The College will not guarantee more than one loan per employee at a time. However, an eligible employee may have more than one loan guaranteed while in the employ of the College.
  9. The College must be provided with a copy of the appraisal or construction agreement, and drawings, prior to issuance of the guarantee. (This is not necessary for a refinanced mortgage.)
  10. The College will guarantee loans for eligible employees during the first ten years of employment only. The program expires for all otherwise eligible employees on the day after their tenth anniversary date.

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