Housing Changes

The University of Toledo’s on-campus community may be growing next year in response to a change in housing policy that requires anyone living outside 25 miles of the university to live on campus for two years.

The announcement was made Oct. 20 at a Student Government meeting, and will be put into action next academic year.

Currently, the mandatory on-campus living period is only for freshmen, and the radius is 50 miles instead of 25. Kaye Patten Wallace, senior vice president for student affairs, said the goal behind the change is to increase retention and aid student success.

“Quite honestly, our major goal is when we recruit students here and we admit them, we are committed to them graduating from the University of Toledo,” Patten Wallace said. “We don’t want them to come and stay one or two years, we want them to come in, have a great college experience and graduate.”

According to Patten Wallace, retention rate and student success have both increased in first- and second-year students, which is one of the reasons they chose to go forward with the initiative.

UT spokesperson Meghan Cunningham said that of the 2472 students currently living on campus, 876 of them are upperclassmen. The other 65 percent of students living on campus are freshmen.

Other schools, including Bowling Green, Ohio State University and Ohio University have similar measures in place, requiring students to live on campus for two years unless they are granted an exemption.

“The research is telling us that the sophomore year is just as important in terms of retention as the freshman year, so this initiative is designed to focus on the sophomore year,” Patten Wallace said.

As of now, Patten Wallace said the amount of money the initiative may gain or lose for the university is currently unknown, and was not a focus during discussions about whether or not to go forward.

SG President Cody Spoon wrote in an email interview that he has mixed feelings about the initiative. While Spoon said he believes the measure will increase retention rates as well as school spirit, he also believes there may be some backlash from students concerned about the costs of living on campus.

“Ultimately, I think that even if the housing change is initially met with resistance, it is a very viable solution to many of the university’s problems,” Spoon wrote.

Corey Duran, a third-year majoring in business, said he thinks the new policy may negatively affect students. While Duran has lived both on and off campus and sees the benefits of both, he said he found the financial aspect worrying.

“I don’t agree with that [the policy],” Duran said. “You can’t really have a good college experience when you’re broke, if you’re having to pay all this extra money just to stay on campus. “

Duran said he would be less opposed to the measure if UT offered more financial aid to assist students living on campus, but that he doesn’t know if the university is able to do so at the moment.

Patten Wallace said for students who do not wish to live on campus but fall outside the 25 mile range, there will be a waiver process in place with each appeal being reviewed on an individual basis.

“The waiver process is available to any student, so any student who says they don’t want to live on campus,” Patten Wallace said. “The goal is to help them be successful, not to be a barrier.”