Changes soon for on-campus living (Photo by John Schreiber, The Daily Campus)
SMU sophomore Lydia Snyder couldn’t wait to move off-campus at the end of her freshman year.
“I wanted the ability to put holes in my walls, make all the noise I wanted, choose my roommates and eat home-cooked meals,” Snyder said. “Also, I wanted more space and not have to fight for parking where I live.”
In the next five or six years, freshman students like Snyder will not have this choice.
SMU President Gerald Turner and other top officials at SMU plan to require that sophomores live on campus. Two years ago, the SMU Board of Trustees quietly approved a plan that will require sophomores to live on campus once the housing is available, according to Jim Caswell, SMU’s vice president for student affairs.
Officials believe the plan will improve the quality of life for the students and the university. In their view, the more time students spend living on campus, the closer connection they forge with the university.
“The theory behind that – and what our benchmark schools have done – is that it enhances the sense of community and offers opportunities for living and learning programs,” Caswell said. “It also has been touted as an enhancement to the general notion of community spirit. On that basis, the university is intending to go in that direction when we have enough housing.”
Turner declined to comment. However, Doug Hallenbeck, director of the Resident Life and Student Housing office, said Turner has pushed the idea because he believes “there is a connection to the university that you get with more students living on campus.”
“It’s so easy to live on-campus,” the former RA said. “You can walk everywhere – to class, to get food and to the gym. In between classes you can go home and take a nap instead of being forced to stay awake.”
Freshman Nash Harloe doesn’t agree.
“I would feel suffocated in a residence hall-type atmosphere,” he said. Harloe lived in residence halls for two years during his high school years.
His friend Patrick Hinchey added, “I’d be miserable, because you’re stuck in the bubble still.”
Costs and Location
As much as administrators stress that the quality of life on campus will increase, so will the university’s revenue.
The funds to pay for the new housing will come directly from the room and board fees sophomores will pay.
Although Hallenbeck stresses that RLSH will try to keep the rent rates competitive, he said it will likely cost the same amount or more than what freshmen currently pay for their first year on campus.
In the 2005-06 academic year, freshmen living in older, double occupancy residence hallitories paid $4,850, and freshmen living in renovated residence hallitories paid $5,910. Students living in SMU apartments paid $5,800 per year.
“Room rates will never go down, but by adding a thousand more people to the SMU housing system, we hope it will stabilize the cost the rooms across the board,” he said.
Hallenbeck was unwilling to disclose or estimate the exact amount the project will cost.
The plan to require sophomores to live on campus is an ambitious one. SMU administrators say they will need as many as 1,500 additional residence hallitory beds to accommodate the freshmen and sophomores on campus. And the housing project comes at a time when officials are pursuing plans to build the George W. Bush Presidential Library on campus, whose costs could easily top $100 million.
When and where construction will occur depends on whether SMU receives the bid for the Bush Library.
“The Bush Library will affect the sophomore housing location,” Hallenbeck said.
The location could be one of many. SMU has recently acquired several pieces of property including the Mrs. Baird’s factory and the University Gardens Apartments, as well as Expressway Towers and Jack’s Pub, both located across Central Expressway on Yale Boulevard.
Once the location for sophomore housing is chosen, officials will decide on the architecture and style of the residence hallitories.
“It really will come down to what design works, what are the cost benefits, meaning if students tell us that they really want to have a community space or food options, are those things worth not having a kitchen,” Hallenbeck said.
But freshman Molly McCorkle, who’s planning to live off Hillcrest next year, values the freedom off-campus housing would allow her.
“I want to live off-campus because there are not as many rules,” she said, adding that having a kitchen is important to her because she likes to cook.
Hallenbeck said he does not have a specific design for the residence halls yet, but he said the buildings could include: a cafe, grill, restaurant or convenience store. There could also be classrooms, depending on how close the buildings are to campus.
“We know we are going to need somewhere between 1,000 to 1,500 beds,” he said. “But we don’t know whether it will be apartment style or suites until we decide on the location.”
SMU will begin renovations on four of the eight freshman residence halls beginning with Shuttles in January 2007. The other three include Boaz, Mary Hay and Peyton.
There are currently 14 residence halls on campus. Approximately 2,000 graduate and undergraduate students live on campus, according to RLSH statistics for 2005.
Officials say SMU’s current occupancy rate is 92 percent, although when The Daily Campus asked for documentation, Hallenbeck and RLSH staff members did not provide any.
Other universities
Several private, liberal arts universities, like Yale, Harvard and Brown already require students to live on-campus after their first year.
One of SMU’s benchmark schools, Vanderbilt University, has required its students to live on campus since 1952.
“In general, small liberal arts colleges tend to have stronger residential requirements,” said Mark Bandas, director of housing at Vanderbilt University. “If you look at Harvard, Yale and Brown, about 99 percent of their students live on campus.”
All undergraduates at Vanderbilt must live on campus during the entire period of their enrollment, unless there’s insufficient space to house them.
And it hasn’t deterred any one from attending the school, as far as Bandas knows.
“We are very up front [with prospective students] that this is part of the Vanderbilt education,” he said.
Wake Forest University is in its first year of mandatory sophomore housing, after university officials implemented their decision last year.
“The transition has been easy, since almost 95 percent of the sophomores already lived in campus,” said Connie Carson, executive director of residential services at Wake Forest University.
Like SMU, Wake Forest officials felt that the longer students live on campus, the better relationship students have with the university.
“The bottom line is that we moved to a two-year requirement because we felt that the residential experience is an essential part of the Wake Forest undergraduate life, and we did not want students to opt out early and lose the connection they would feel towards the institution and its resources,” Carson said.
– Kate Murphy contributed to this report.
Changes soon for on-campus living (Graphic by Sung Kim, The Daily Campus)
