Apartment Choice

By Sarah Butrymowicz and Meredith Kolodner Alduha Leon and Jared Sanders, roommates at Savannah State University , dined on hot dogs in their apartment on Thanksgiving Day of their sophomore year. They had decided to skip feasting with family in Atlanta to pick up extra hours at their airport jobs loading luggage onto planes. Payday wasn’t until Friday, though, and Leon only had $5 left on his food stamps card . During the three years they spent at Savannah State , Sanders and Leon struggled to pay their tuition, fees and living expenses. They accumulated more than $50,000 in loans between the two of them, despite working up to 40 hours a week. After exhausting themselves working late or overnight shifts so they wouldn’t have to miss class, and finding their grades suffering, they dropped out in 2015, joining a growing pool of Georgians who have debt but no degree. More than 108,000 students who had taken out federal loans withdrew from Georgia’s public colleges and universities bet...

We’re a particularly strong and well-capitalized company with a very strong investment record . Joe Lubeck Executive chairman, Landmark Apartment Trust of America Inc. The recession and slumping housing market made the past few years a good time to invest in apartments — and Landmark Apartment Trust of America Inc. was poised to take action. By acquiring more than $1 billion in properties in 2013, Landmark now owns or manages almost 33,000 units, says Joe Lubeck, executive chairman. This correlates with increased interest in renting. “We see that a lot of people are more interested in job portability and the ability to relocate from one city based on job availability, and they also no longer perceive a house as being the solid investment that it once was,” Lubeck says. “As a result, we’re seeing significant growth in the household formative years , the 25- to 40-year-old market, where people are specifically looking to be renters by choice.” Targeting distressed properties that c...

When Hannah Alani found out the Indiana Daily Student was going to reduce its print frequency from five to two days a week, she wasn't upset. As editor-in-chief, Alani had seen her staff struggling to fill a print product that had fewer and fewer advertisements. Desk editors were skipping class to cover events that were barely newsworthy just so there was enough editorial content for the next edition. "The first thing I said was, 'Can we do it now?' Why go two more months?" she said. A printing contract with The Herald-Times and a few prepaid advertisements ensured Indiana University 's 150-year-old student newspaper would continue printing five days a week through the spring 2017 semester. But Alani, after being informed of the decision by student media director Ron Johnson , would be tasked with breaking the news to her staff. She planned to do it during Slash, the regular Friday meeting where the five most recent editions are evaluated and the next fi...