Pratt Institute To Allow Chief Engineer To Stay In On-Campus Housing; Other Staff’s Fate Up In The Air

Good news for supporters of Pratt Institute chief engineer Conrad Milster: college administrators now say they will not be evicting him from his on-campus apartment by January 15, 2016, and that he can continue to stay “indefinitely” due to the school’s need for him to be available 24-hours/7-days a week to keep all the equipment running well.

However, the other four staff members who were given eviction notices in September have not gotten a similar reprieve, reports DNAInfo. Those employees are reportedly still attempting to work something out with administrators.

The about-face came after over 3,000 Pratt students, alumni, neighbors, and general fans of Milster, 79 — who has lived and worked at Pratt for 67 years — signed an online petition expressing outrage at the short notice given to the five employees and urging Pratt President Thomas Schutte and others in the administration to reconsider.

Many of these staff/faculty members have been calling these townhouses “home” for years, and now Pratt is trying to uproot them and their families to make marginally more space for student housing. This would not only ruin the historic identities of the houses, but also the lives of those living in them. Due to the ever-increasing rents in the neighborhood, many of these families would be pushed out of the area and potentially out of New York altogether. Please sign this petition to urge the administration to reconsider the impact they are making on the lives of their employees and their families.