Editorial: Housing policy lacks balance

This fall semester, the student population on campus will boom as a new policy concerning housing requirements will begin its first year. The policy change was enacted last year to require incoming freshmen living outside of a 25-mile radius of the University of Toledo to live on campus for two years.
While it has been statistically proven to be more beneficial for incoming freshman attending college to live on campus their first year, the change in policy could negatively affect the student population and the wellbeing of the university.
In comparison with other public colleges in Ohio, UT’s new housing requirements are similar to those of other colleges. Ohio State University, Kent State University, Ohio University, University of Cincinnati and Bowling Green State University all require their new students to stay on campus for at least two years or four semesters. Common exemptions to the housing requirement include marriage, military service, Greek involvement or being over the age of 20.
Financial hardship for each of these schools is mentioned as a possible exemption to leave the housing program, but as shown on Ohio University’s website, students “must provide documented evidence of extreme financial need.” Further down on the website states that “requests for residing off campus for financial savings is not a valid reason for a financial hardship.” Similar rules have been enacted at UT. Students can request a residency exemption through the Office of Residence Life, but they do not guarantee an exemption. Res Life’s website states that representatives from UT’s offices of admissions, residence life, financial aid and loans and special accounts will comprise the committee to review applications.

In an interview when the initiative was first announced, Kaye Patten Wallace, senior vice president for student affairs, said, “The waiver process is available to any student; so any student who says they don’t want to live on campus, the goal is to help them be successful, not to be a barrier.”
As long as this route is open for students who are in financial need as well as non-traditional students and other special cases, student needs seem to be put ahead of the university’s desires. However, the waiver process is left to be determined on a case to case basis, which can lead to unnecessarily rigid process resulting in a large number of rejections. Not every student is the same and there are advantages and disadvantages to staying on campus past your freshman year.
UT’s new rule of two-year campus residency comes along with a decrease in the miles around the university that you are able to live within and commute. Previously, students with a permanent residence within 50 miles of UT could commute to campus if they chose to do so. Now, the radius is 25 miles. Many schools still use the ’50-mile rule’, including UT’s main rival Bowling Green State University.
UT has a large commuter population. In 2015 the total number of students living on campus was only 2,472, with 1,589 of those students being freshman. The radius decrease changes the lives of potential UT students who only live a half hour away from UT. Thirty to forty minutes is a short commute for students, compared to adults who can drive up to an hour and a half one way for their jobs. With only a 25 mile radius, the number of commuter students could significantly dwindle. The radius change cuts out possible commuter student populations from cities such as Defiance, Findlay, Fremont, Adrian and Ann Arbor. This could create even more issues with decreasing enrollment numbers and continue to negatively impact those numbers in upcoming years.
This negative impact on the university does have the potential to be balanced out by an increase in revenue from the growing number of students paying for on campus housing for their first two years. Students who live on campus end up paying more than those who don’t, including students who stay with family or students who live in off-campus apartments and houses.
With college tuition numbers continuing to grow in the 2013-14 school year up to $21,003.00 as the average for all institutions in the country according to the National Center for Education Statistics, this would pose a significant financial impact on students who wish to attend the university but live outside of the 25-mile radius. They could easily turn to a different school that accepts those within 50 miles, such as Bowling Green State University or the University of Cincinnati.
While the motivation behind reworking this rule may have good intentions, this new student-housing policy not only can cost students more money but can also hurt UT by discouraging future commuter students to attend. Administrators need to keep an open mind about this policy and rework it in the upcoming years until a balance can be reached between what students need and what the university wants.
Who knows? Maybe our parking problem will be solved because UT scared off all the future commuters.