On campus makes sense

Starting in the fall of 2003, freshman students will be required to live on-campus during their first year at IU. The proposal, submitted Friday to the board of trustees by Chancellor Sharon Brehm, claims that students who live on-campus are "more likely to succeed in a variety of desirable ways than their counterparts who commute to school."\nWe absolutely agree.\nAlthough the plan sounds a bit drastic, in reality, merely 400 students will be affected by the change. Dean of Students Richard McKaig said the percentage of freshmen who live on-campus has remained quite steady during the past few years, huddling around 92 percent of the freshmen population. The new mandate aims to raise this to 98 percent, a number the proposal claims, "could be accommodated in the current residence hall configuration." Granted, 38 students camped out in lounges during the first few weeks of school this year, but hopefully this capacity problem can be sorted out before 400 more are without beds.\nIU will be joining the University of Illinois, Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan State, Ball State, Indiana State University and Miami of Ohio in mandating that freshmen live on-campus. The only exceptions, as stated in the proposal, are students with a parent or guardian residence within 25 miles of campus, a transfer student living in this same radius, transfer students living outside of this radius who are second semester (15 credit hours) students or part-time students, 21-year-old students and those choosing to reside in a fraternity. \nThis should have been done years ago.\nStudents who live on campus at IUB perform better academically and have a higher first to second and first to third semester retention rate, as claimed in the proposal. Without the necessary social and emotional networking provided for by the residence halls, most students would be left without a clue. Sure, classes provide a great opportunity to meet new people, as do many extracurricular activities, but the friendships and direction yielded from dorm life is priceless. \nWe come to this conclusion from our own experiences and observations. \nA vast number of freshmen, if asked, would undoubtedly agree that without living a year in the dorm, they would have fewer friends, fewer fond college memories and less appreciation for living off-campus.\nStudents who live on campus gain needed autonomy during their first year at school and portray a greater self-concept than students who don't experience this community.\nNational data presented by Brehm's plan has found that students who live on campus have a greater chance of graduating, interact more frequently with faculty and peers in informal settings and overall, are more satisfied with their college experience.\nOne year of dorm food isn't going to kill anyone. Sure, these 400 freshmen that will be mandated to live on campus might have a greater chance of contracting athlete's foot from the showers, and will have a little less alone-time than normal, but seriously -- what's college life without dorm life?\n