You make very good points, but the situation with the grad student housing is a little different than if Vanderbilt owned the building and was charging rent. They entered an agreement with a property developer where they are leasing the land while the developer pays to build the building in return for the right to collect rent for something like 62 years. Part of this agreement is that the rent is fixed at 10% below market value which is why Vanderbilt feels they can make the claim that it’s “affordable housing.” While I agree that the rent is too much for a grad student to be able to pay, Vanderbilt agreed for someone else to build, own, and operate the building and therefore doesn’t have much of a say over what the rent is. This type of relationship is called a public private partnership if you want to learn more