Freshmen required to live on campus to promote community

The 2010 incoming class of freshmen will be the first required to live in either on-campus housing or Granville Towers for their first year.

Although 99 percent of freshmen already live in those locations, Larry Hicks, director of Housing and Residential Education, said that administrators opted to formalize the policy as a symbolic gesture displaying the value UNC places on living on campus.

“The campus feels that (living on campus) is critical enough to make the requirement to formalize the relationship between living on campus and student success,” Hicks said. “Since only 1 percent of first-year students live off campus, it’s not an issue of retaining students to bolster revenue or anything like that.”

According to the housing Web site, students who live on campus are presented with more opportunities to interact with professors outside the classroom, attend cultural events, work on campus and participate in student groups.

“Living on campus has a direct correlation to student academic success,” said Rick Bradley, assistant director for housing. “For a student to not live on campus, they lose out on feeling a part of the UNC community as a whole, as well as some of the success factors tied to their academic performance.”

Bradley said campus safety features — like blue security lights — also make on-campus housing ideal for freshmen.

The policy also applies to transfer students who have earned fewer than 30 credit hours and are enrolled full time at UNC.

Students are permitted to submit an appeal to receive a waiver of the requirement.

Exceptions to the policy are provided for students age 21 or older, students living with a spouse or children, military veterans with at least two years of active service and students with disabilities that would make living on campus difficult.

Hicks said freshmen who might choose to commute from their homes in Chapel Hill or nearby towns would need to fulfill the exemption requirements in order to live at home and commute.

Bradley said no other students should be affected by the policy, which does not affect current freshmen.

Students who enroll for the first time this summer are required to live on campus during summer school.

Junior Justin Langdon said the University’s decision to force freshmen to live on campus was inappropriate.

“I think they’re kind of overstepping the school’s bounds. It doesn’t seem very fair,” he said.

Faculty Chairwoman McKay Coble said she could understand the reasoning behind the policy change.

“I think particularly getting used to a campus the size of Carolina can be tough for people,” she said. “It’s certainly one way to get people involved in their residential communities right off the bat. But I do think it’s too early to tell for sure.”



Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.