For thousands of UF students this week, the anxiety of summer finals has been traded for the anxiety of temporary displacement.
That’s because early move-out dates in apartment complexes across Gainesville have sent students scrambling to find shelter, some more than a week before classes end Aug. 10.
For students like Katina Prokos, going home until fall isn’t an option. Between balancing classes and an internship this semester, the 20-year-old public relations junior won’t be returning to her parent’s home in North Carolina when her lease at Gainesville Place expires Aug. 3.
“I’m lucky that I knew people in town or else I’d probably be staying in a hotel,” she said.
Mark Wilke, vice president of operations for Collier Companies, said the early moving dates were necessary to prepare apartments for new residents.
“We are experimenting with lease end dates to better accommodate student schedules,” he said in a statement Monday.
Mishka Henry, a 20-year-old civil engineering junior living at The Enclave, said she’d rather spend her week studying instead of moving out of her apartment.
“It doesn’t make sense for them to end our leases when most of the people that live in this community are UF students and take summer classes,” she said.
