All on-campus residents most likely remember the day they moved into their residence halls at NC State. Although it wasn’t easy, there was some excitement in knowing that this would be your home for the next semester and the number of people you could potentially meet was boundless. However, not all students have had this experience. According to U.S. News, in 2013, nearly one in every five freshmen commuted to school or lived off campus. At NC State, 22 percent of freshmen currently live off campus.
But that’s going to change. First-year NC State students are now required to live on campus, as well as have a meal plan. This change is much overdue when compared to many of our peer institutions. According to the U.S. Department of Education, over 87 colleges and universities already require students to live on campus for at least a year, among them UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke University. Duke even has a three-year policy, where students can only live off campus their senior year, with no exceptions.
Mike Mullen, vice chancellor and dean of the Division of Academic and Student Affairs at NC State, believes that his move will positively affect student success.
“The on-campus living experience at NC State promotes greater community and creates a sense of citizenship within the Wolfpack family,” Mullen said. “Living on campus also provides greater proximity to university life, including access to student organizations and recreation opportunities, greater access to academic resources, wellness resources and participation in learning communities.”
Living on campus provides students with a myriad of opportunities that off-campus students are unable to take advantage of. For starters, on-campus students can easily walk to their classes, the library and the tutoring center from their residence halls, as well as use the bus system and attend RA and residence hall-hosted events. These are often underrated advantages of living in such close proximity to so many school amenities.
Not only does living on campus make college life simpler, there are many other tangible benefits. According to U.S. News, experts caution that, at residential institutions, students who don’t live on campus miss out on an indispensable part of the college experience.
Experts say that students who live on campus feel more connected to their college or university. According to U.S. News, these students are more likely to graduate on time compared to students who commute, who are more likely to be a retention risk.
Many colleges believe that living on campus is crucial for students, especially freshmen. This way, freshmen can participate more in campus activities, receive academic support, make social connections and more fully understand and engage in the campus culture.
“Academic life doesn’t end at the classroom exit,” NYU spokesman John Beckman said. “The full range of student participation is an important part of the college experience. This is even truer and more important in the case of freshmen. They are transitioning to college, and we want them to participate in the full first-year program.”
An NC State report discovered that students are more likely to persist after a year if they live on campus. The data also reveals that GPAs and graduation rates are higher for on-campus NC State students.
Many current freshmen and upperclassmen on-campus residents agree with the switch, but those that want to remain on campus are not very happy about their options. Because of the change, on-campus priority is given to freshmen, causing upperclassmen to have some difficulty finding nice residence halls on campus.
Therefore, some students are taking advantage of the lower prices at University Towers, an off-campus resident hall that housed many freshmen in the past but is now targeting upperclass NC State students. One of these students is Austin Purvis, a freshman studying civil engineering who agrees with the decision to make living on campus mandatory.
“I think it’s a smart idea,” Purvis said. “You can get more involved and see people you know just by walking around campus.”
Although it’s true that the cost of housing is high and many freshmen students live off campus for financial reasons, as Tom Delahunt, Drake University’s vice president for admission and student financial planning, states, “Let’s make sure it’s money saved and not money not-spent.”
A way to earn money and still feel connected to the college culture could be by obtaining on on-campus job: numerous jobs are offered by NC State.
Requiring freshmen to reside on campus is an important change for NC State because, after all, you can only live in a residence hall for four years out of your whole life.
