© 2012 CORT. A Berkshire Hathaway Company.

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Visit us at CORT.com or call us at 888.360.2678.

Case Study

Otis College of Art and CORT Create On-Campus Lifestyle in Off-Campus Community

LIVE. WORK. CELEBRATE.

Overview Otis College of Art and Design is a non-profit school for the arts located in Los Angeles. Founded in 1918 as the first independent school of art in Southern California, Otis educates and trains more than 1,200 undergraduate and graduate students in art and design. As this distinguished college sought a solution to comfortably house their growing base of incoming first-year students, they turned to CORT, a Berkshire Hathaway Company and the nation’s leading furniture rental provider, to furnish student apartments, providing a positive experience to students and removing the burden of furniture management from Otis staff.

Challenge Otis wanted a traditional residential community, complete with resident advisors (RAs), staff members, special programs for students, and health and safety inspections to ensure the well-being of students as well as promote the Otis campus culture for students choosing to live on campus.

As a small college, Otis also sought a housing solution that would meet their community requirements without requiring a significant investment. Otis needed trusted partners to ensure the accommodations met student standards while enabling Otis to fulfill its mission of creating an Otis campus culture within the community. Otis also aimed to make this housing affordable and convenient for students, which meant the solution needed to be close to the Otis campus and affordable for students on a budget. In addition, Otis sought partners who would structure lease

agreements with the college to provide a seamless process for students.

The Solution Otis turned to private vendors to create the Otis Student Housing program beginning with a nearby apartment community in an ideal location close to campus for their residential community. After partnering with this community, Otis had a resource to provide apartments to students while fostering an Otis community culture. However, students would need more than four walls, which is why Otis turned to CORT.

"I was looking for furniture partners when I came across CORT as a highly recommended vendor. Their bid was competitive and I immediately felt this would be a beneficial relationship for Otis, particularly considering how customer service centered CORT was."

MICHAEL RICHARDSDirector of Housing and Student Life at Otis

© 2012 CORT. A Berkshire Hathaway Company.

2

Visit us at CORT.com or call us at 888.360.2678.

Case Study

Otis College of Art and CORT Create On-Campus Lifestyle in Off-Campus Community

LIVE. WORK. CELEBRATE.

CORT provides a standard package to furnish each student apartment, and offers slightly varied packages for RAs and visiting artists and faculty who stay in the community. Each apartment houses four students within two bedrooms, or two RAs in a two bedroom apartment. CORT works with the apartment community to coordinate delivery, pick-up and all maintenance or replacement needs for Otis students.

With this option, students have the benefit of living in an Otis housing community, complete with their peers, convenience to campus, Otis social programs and CORT furniture. But the benefits are two-fold, as Otis benefits by housing students in a safe environment that reinforces the Otis culture without taking on the burden of managing the housing. By renting rather than purchasing furniture, Otis also avoids the burden of storing furniture when students go home for the summer.

CORT is more than just a partner for Otis students who live in this community, though. Many first-year Otis students choose to live in furnished apartments near campus, but some choose to locate their own housing elsewhere. However, many of these students are also in the dark when it comes to furnishing their housing. For these students, Otis often recommends CORT as a furniture rental provider. In addition, CORT also has relationships with many other apartment communities in the area who recommend CORT to students and other residents. CORT has helped establish relationships between other area apartment communities and Otis so that Otis has a variety of reputable apartment communities to suggest to interested students.

By buildings relationships throughout the community, CORT helps ensure that area college students have housing, apartment communities have renters and area colleges have reputable communities to suggest to students, a classic example of the ‘win-win-win’ situation CORT strives to promote.

The Results Otis’ relationship with CORT and the area apartment community has enabled Otis to create a safe, welcoming environment for their incoming first-year students. In 2011, this community housed 30 percent of Otis’ first-year students.

Through this partnership, Otis and CORT have also been able to proactively reach out to students to ensure the community-feel of their apartments. By providing new students with items like water bottles, backpacks and other amenities, CORT goes beyond its title of furniture provider. Through these contributions and more, CORT and Otis have successfully gone beyond providing students with apartments to providing them with an Otis community, and a home away from home.

"It’s been a very smooth relationship, one of the smoothest relationships I’ve ever had, honestly. From the customer service to the responsiveness, you can tell CORT is really committed to building a longstanding relationship by meeting the needs of our institution."

MICHAEL RICHARDSDirector of Housing and Student Life at Otis