Editorial: Extended campus housing not the answer for freshmen crowd
June 4, 2008
Some incoming freshmen receiving their housing assignments in the coming months might be surprised to find that despite the requirement stating freshmen must live “on campus” during their first year at MU, they won’t be living on campus at all.
The Department of Residential Life has made plans to house up to 700 students in apartments at Campus Lodge and Campus View Apartments, where single rooms will be available and no more than two people will share a bathroom. The amenities might sound enticing, but as a freshman expecting to be immersed in college culture and living right next door to their friends’ residence halls and their classroom buildings, it’s disappointing.
There’s no question on-campus housing is currently insufficient to serve returning students choosing to live in residence halls and the entire incoming freshman class. Cramer Hall, which was scheduled to close this summer, will re-open in the fall, and computer labs and lounges in some residence halls will be converted into more rooms. The Department of Residential Life seems to have exhausted their available resources for the coming academic year, so it’s logical that they’re looking off-campus for more housing options. But it’s unfortunate that these options are about two miles from campus, making walking to class in icy winter months unpleasant, unsafe and improbable.
In past years when the Department of Residential Life had insufficient housing for incoming freshmen, arrangements were made to house students at Stephens College — a significantly shorter walk to campus than the trek from Campus Lodge or Campus View apartments. If the Department of Residential Life still has the opportunity to acquire living spaces closer to campus (such as University Place apartments, for example), this should be made a priority; if not, it is important to ensure transportation to and from campus is made as efficient and reliable as possible.
Both locations include stops on the Columbia Transit Gold Route bus lines, but Residential Life and MU Parking and Transportation Services must be sure to provide dependable and frequent shuttles so that students will arrive for class on time each day. In addition to typical class times, the bus schedule must take into consideration normal meal hours — even though students in Campus Lodge and Campus View Apartments will be living off-campus, they will still be required to purchase an on-campus meal plan.
In addition, many freshmen don’t bring cars to school their first year at MU because they’re on campus and don’t need them. Since more freshmen will now be off campus, an increase in cars and the need for parking may also become an issue, and MU Parking and Transportation Services must be prepared to deal with that.
For those freshmen that don’t bring cars, transportation should also be provided in later evening hours and on weekends to accommodate students participating in extra curricular activities that meet later at night or those who want to attend campus events. Even if we were to install more blue light emergency phones to guide freshmen from campus to their apartments, the two-mile walk would not feel or be safe late at night.
If 700 students are going to have to live in “extended campus” housing two miles away, many of them not by choice, it is important that the Department of Residential Life and MU Parking and Transportation Services provide shuttles that make it as simple as possible for students to attend class, eat on campus and attend extracurricular and campus functions.
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