Student housing policies modified

A new campus housing policy requires that students must live on EMU campus until they are a senior and are 21 years or older.

Unlike the current policy, which allows students to move off campus after they reach their 21st birthday or achieve senior status, the new policy means that students have to fill both requirements to live off campus. The President's Cabinet approved the new policy on Oct 26.

A policy change has been in discussion for several years. Contrary to some beliefs, the change in the housing policy is not because of questionable off-campus behaviors. Rather, due in part to Prioritization process, the change has financial dimensions. Students living on campus longer will increase revenue coming into EMU, so the school will benefit financially from the new policy. Current students will not be affected by the new policy, since it will only go into effect beginning with the first-year class coming in the fall semester of 2006.

Students may benefit from a tighter sense of community. Generally students who stay on campus remain more involved, said Vice President of Student Life Ken L. Nafziger, because it is more challenging for off campus students to remain in communication and be aware of events. Nafziger also noted that wider research indicates that resident students have higher GPAs and greater success rates.

Earlier this semester, Residence Life sent out a survey to assess student opinions on a policy similar to that at Goshen, Bluffton and Bridgewater, which require students to live on campus all four years of college. Survey results indicated that 76 percent of students were against such a policy change. A forum was held for students to voice their opinions before the decision to change the policy was made. According to Joel Lehman, SGA co-president, both sides of the issue were voiced.

Although many responded to the survey and at the forum, the new policy will not affect current students at all. "Messiah and Goshen already have policies like this," Lehman said. "If you don't know the option to live off campus is there, then you won't miss it."

"They can't do that!" first-year Shakema Taylor objected. "It makes me not even want to stay here anymore. We are grown adults. We came here to get an education, not to live in a nunnery."

One of the perks that many students look forward to when coming to college is freedom from parents and the ability to live more independently. "If I wanted excessive parenting when I went to college, I would have stayed at home and went to a community college," junior Kevin Ressler said.

Nafziger said the new policy was adapted to respond to student concerns, allowing the opportunity to move off campus which students believe provides a natural transition from college life to independence. Students still have the opportunity to move off campus as seniors, thus maintaining a distinctive quality of EMU, while also emphasizing a resident campus as a place where students can interact. According to Nafziger, the original policy was set up to apply to seniors, but more students have been taking a year off before or during college or achieving senior status by taking CLEP exams and AP credit. The revised policy is intended to return to the original intentions.

Some students expressed interested in having more suites, apartments, and community housing options such as Martin House where students live together and together work out the guidelines for living, meal plans, and group activities, as a group. Nafziger said that Residence Life is still very interested in responding to what students want and will keep these interests in mind when allocating funds or upgrading buildings.