I lived in Lee Residence Hall my first year. I won’t say that the process of adjusting to a new home was a walk in the park. But when I think about it as an aspect of settling down into college life as a whole, it was a very convenient and logical option to have my first year, so it’s understandable why housing requires first-years to live on campus.

A recent Technician news article discussed the woes of returning upperclassmen who are finding it tough to secure a space with University Housing for the 2018-19 school year. Currently, preference is being given to incoming first-year students, who must fulfill their requirement to live on campus, and current students under 61 credit hours.

In the article, Katrina Pawvluk, the associate director of housing operations, assignments and conference services, mentioned research that shows first-years “do better academically and socially by living on campus their first year and are more likely to stay in school.” The article recounts that due to more spots being reserved for first-years, most of the older students have no choice but to look for off-campus housing.

The article also quoted several second-years stating that it seemed unfair for the incoming students to get their top choices in residence halls while the upperclassmen weren’t even guaranteed a housing assignment. I think upperclassmen, too, would benefit from on-campus housing in the same social and academic ways, and shouldn’t be made to look for housing elsewhere.

When you live right in the middle of campus, the radius of your world is greatly shortened. While some people potentially wouldn’t want this, on-campus housing means being closer to your classes and wasting less time on the commute. Most academic buildings and bus stops are walking distance from the residence halls on main campus. This even encourages you to find your own way around the place — I wouldn’t know half as much about the university and its inner shortcuts as I do now if I hadn’t been forced to find my way to my classes by foot.

There’s also the new venture of the LimeBikes that NC State introduced last year, which students have at their disposal, but this resource is found only on campus. If upperclassmen were made to go apartment-hunting off campus, leaving for classes merely 10 or 15 minutes in advance would be a lost luxury.

Being within close proximity of the university at all times also opens doors for spontaneous plans, like a quick visit to a professor’s office hours when you find yourself free for an hour, a group study session you hadn’t intended on attending at first, or even just a social get-together two minutes away. Your classes, bus stops and, of course, Talley Student Union being a stone’s throw away certainly goes a long way.

Not to mention, the friends made and connections formed in the first living arrangement can be lifelong, and abruptly switching housing can disrupt that pattern and be frustrating if moving wasn’t your choice in the first place. You’re made to readjust to a new place all over again, which can be tough.

Living on campus constantly offers students new environments to study in: the study lounges in the residence halls, the study lounges in academic buildings, and both of the libraries on campus, especially D.H. Hill Library, since it’s the nearest to the main campus housing options. Having immediate access to a campus library can also prove to be an advantage during long exam seasons — this may not be an easy or on-the-way option for all of those who live off campus.

We should remember that with an off-campus apartment comes great responsibility. All services like laundry, meal plan options and campus Wi-Fi that seemed so simple and easy to deal with in a dormitory will be chores that need to be taken care of. Though living on your own also has its benefits, it seems easier to be able to worry only about academics and college life rather than weekly grocery shopping and paying monthly electricity and water bills. Living on campus takes on those responsibilities for you, for the most part.

Most students agree that living on campus has helped them adjust to life at university by just being immersed in the college environment. It’s also the key to having the complete college experience. Students should have the option of living in residence halls and on-campus housing arrangements for all four of their undergraduate years if they want to.