Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - college students are getting along great with a new type of dorm-mate

phredgreen · 10-19-2003, 02:32 AM

plan on being a dirty old man/woman? live the dream! move to toledo!

Quote:

<i>originally found here: http://www.freep.com/news/statewire/...6_20031018.htm</i>

<b>College students, retirees share nursing home
October 18, 2003, 2:08 PM</b>

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) -- Alvin Krueger, 86, has no complaints about the new neighbors in his retirement home. A bunch of college students, most of them young women, live right down the hall.

"Why would I want to move?" he asked, grinning broadly.

Students from Mercy College of Northwest Ohio have settled into the Park Lane Retirement Community, one block from the school that specializes in nursing and allied health education.

The college has outgrown the residence hall on the third floor of its building. Last year, Mercy put about a dozen students in Park Lane, a converted 1926 hotel that once hosted Bob Hope and Marilyn Monroe. This year 43 students are housed there, all but two of them female.

"I love coming down here every morning and having someone ask how I'm doing," said Danielle Noffsinger, 19, a sophomore from Deshler.

"On a good day, you get two or three hugs on the way up to your room," agreed Meagan Cook, 19, a freshman from Hillsdale, Mich.

The students have taken to quizzing their older neighbors about eating habits and medication for school assignments.

Most of Park Lane's 40 retirees are older than 70, and say they enjoy the company of the amiable and considerate students, who stop to chat or join games of cards or bingo.

Some students say their schoolwork gets in the way of doing more with the older residents.

"We're jealous," Cook said. "They're going to the zoo. We're doing homework. They have better social lives than we do."

so... college students... would you live in an old folks home? having visited many of them myself, i'd be incredibly hesitant, but when it comes to affordable housing, most students will take what they can get. howsabout you?