Board OKs mandatory dorm living

When he was a freshman, Patrick Mitchell chose to live off-campus at Brownstone Terrace apartments. A junior now, he said he has no regrets about missing dorm life his first year.\n"I think it was much better for me to live off campus," he said. "Academically, it kept me from being influenced by some of the negativities of the dorm. And I'm a pretty outgoing person, so I tend to meet a lot of people anyway."\nMitchell avoided the dorms mainly to save his family money. Rent at his apartment was about $100 less a month than the dorms, and he didn't have to buy a meal plan.\nBut starting next year, freshmen will no longer have the option of off-campus living.\nAt the board of trustees meeting Friday, the board approved a plan requiring all freshmen to live on-campus.\nMitchell thinks the policy will hurt students like him who want to save money by living off-campus. The dorms are not cheap, and tuition is always rising, he said.\nSophomore Adam Peeples, who lived in Read his freshman year, doesn't see it that way. Though most upperclassmen tend to move out of the dorms, Peeples decided to come back -- and stay in the exact same room.\n"I had a great experience," Peeples said. "I would have missed doing activities with my floor and getting to know people if I had lived off-campus."\nHe said he had no problem with the policy change.\n"Living in the dorms has only helped me to enjoy campus and get more involved," he said.\nThe change will potentially affect about 400 freshmen, Chancellor Sharon Brehm said. As the driving force behind the new policy, she compiled a five-page study explaining the benefits of residential housing, which she presented to the trustees.\n"The first year is the hardest year of college," she said. "Living on campus provides stability for the student."\nFreshmen who live on-campus have higher grades and a higher retention and graduation rate than those who live off-campus, the report said. And freshmen who live on-campus are 6 percent more likely to return for their sophomore year.\n"Living in an apartment is a terrible way to enter college," she said. "How do you get connected to the campus? I really do believe this is the best way to start one's college career."\nTrustee Pat Shoulders backed the plan.\n"This policy seems to have great merit in educational experience, student retention and campus involvement," he said. \nThe plan also had the blessings of the Bloomington Faculty Council and IU Student Association. \n"Students adjust more quickly academically and socially when living on campus," IU Student Association president Bill Gray said. "I think it's a good idea."\nSome exceptions to the policy will be made for students who live with their parents, married students and students with medical conditions.