The Annex of Oshkosh, an apartment complex located on Marion Road, informed students it would not be ready for move-in on Monday, Sept. 3, three days before the start of the fall semester.

The luxury student housing told residents that move-in day would start Labor Day, even doing hard-hat tours every so often to show residents what the place looked like.

According to an anonymous source, promises were made about the readiness of the apartment complex.
“We came in for a tour and the guy was just like, ‘Oh yeah, don’t worry about it, we have a hundred men here today. It’ll be fine.’ And that was like a month before that,” the source said. “I came again and it looked the same from the outside.”

On Wednesday, Aug. 29, The Annex emailed residents telling them that they would have to push the move-in time on Sept. 3 from starting at 8:30 a.m. to noon, adding they will be having a final inspection that Friday, three days before move-in day and that there is a possibility they may not get approved.

Residents were informed that The Annex had booked rooms at a temporary hotel in anticipation.
The night of Friday, Aug. 31, residents received news that the apartment had not passed their inspection, and starting on Labor Day at 6 p.m., residents moved into the Gruenhagen Conference Center on the UWO campus with hopes of it only being for a week.

The Annex manager Pamela Cuevas said they didn’t get approved by the city for occupancy because of the elevators.
“The elevator was a fire safety,” Cuevas said. “If the elevator doesn’t work, we can’t get people to live here.”
Although it was sudden that Gruenhagen would have to house up many Annex residents, Conference Center Director Marc Nylen said they were prepared.

“We received the call Thursday and we had to check students in that Saturday, so it was about a three-day notice, which was fine,” Nylen said. “It was at a great time of the year, we predictably thought there would be a need, so we had prepared some of our lodging floors.”

Students were offered to either stay at the Gruenhagen or find their own temporary housing, receiving a $50 voucher each day the complex was not ready to move into.

Mailine Yang, a resident at The Annex, said that she was doubtful that the building would be ready on time.
“I moved into Gruenhagen reluctantly,” Yang said. “I was annoyed because they promised us a move-in date before classes began.”

However, Yang said she understands that things like this happen.
“I was going to just commute from where I lived but the drive would have been too much,” Yang said. “It ended up being all right because I got to explore the campus more than I would have had I lived off campus right away.”
According to an anonymous source, on Saturday, Sept. 8 residents were able to move into the Annex, but not without having some problems.

“They were supposed to have the elevator working and everything, and they weren’t working at all,” the source said. “So everyone had to carry their things. It was insane.”

Many of the units still have chipped paint, no screens on the windows and some residents even got reassigned units because theirs weren’t ready.

“When I got into the apartment, it looked very rushed,” Yang said. “There were holes in the wall, drywall dust on counters and dents and cracks in the walls. It’s pretty disappointing to see that in a brand new complex.”
Cuevas said the Americans with Disabilities units do not come with microwaves, even though it was stated in the advertisement that all units come with them.

The anonymous source said they wouldn’t have cared about the delayed move-in as much if the staff at The Annex had a better communication system.

“Just having someone available that’s going to be professional with the students, ‘cause even though we’re students in student housing, there’s no reason for them to be unprofessional,” the source said. “Just having a little more professionalism and being able to answer quickly because I know they have staff full time. So it’s just annoying that we’re paying for them to be there and they’re not helping.”