Whether it’s searching aimlessly for a seat in the student center, trekking to and from the AV 14 parking lot or waiting in 40-minute lines at Plaza, every single student on this campus has felt the strain on daily university life caused by sheer overcapacity.
This phenomenon is especially stressful for incoming freshmen, whom MU cannot accommodate in on-campus housing. The portion of freshman turned away and forced to find living arrangements on their own, sacrificing the promised freshman-year experience for the problematic inconveniences of apartment bill payments, food costs and commuting time constraints, is far too large.
Despite the limited supply, (worsened by the fact Mark Twain Hall has closed for renovations and Johnston Hall will close next spring) Residential Life Director Frankie Minor’s projected enrollment for the freshman class is a 4.9 percent increase from last year’s actual enrollment. An increase…while available housing remains stagnant.
Those students being turned away aren’t just statistics, they are real people who are hurting, though perhaps university officials don’t care given that the freshmen have already paid to come here –it’s their problem.
It is not however, just their problem, it is a problem for the university as a whole.
On-campus living is a stepping-stone for freshman making the transition into adulthood, and the advantages of living close to campus facilities, events and fellow classmates foster academic success. It’s much easier for someone to feel inclined to skip a class or study session just because it’s a forty-minute process to get to campus in the first place. Even public transportation options look bleak, given the current transit situation. Other schools with better academic reputations than ours require students to live on campus all four undergraduate years.
Overcrowding doesn’t just stop there. It affects nearly every aspect of university life: pedestrian traffic, class size, dining hall experiences, crowding of MU facilities like the recreation complex, the possibility of attaining tickets for sporting events… the list goes on.
It’s time MU stopped pretending it has the infrastructure to support the unbearable amount of students attending this university, and it begins with one single little process: the application.
If you can say MU even has a real application process, that is.
Surprisingly, answering two questions about GPA and residency don’t qualify as accurate measures of whether an individual will succeed at this university. Even the Common Application is more difficult. It is far too easy to get accepted into this institution, and that needs to change. We absolutely need to raise our admission standards.
That being said, we are not advocating for objective, mechanical requirements that will reject those who may not meet a certain numerical test score but will value the opportunity to attend this university and contribute to it; even a subjective assessment of applications will be a drastic improvement. The quality collegiate education MU gives shouldn’t just be two clicks away.
Raising the application standards is the best solution to solving the overcrowding problem, unless MU is willing to spend the time, money and resources to provide for the egregious amount of students it accepts. Given the current economic conditions, our bet is a solid “no.”
Improving standards will bring an enormous (an amount still dwarfed by the numbers of incoming students) amount of benefits for the university. Raising standards will create a competitive environment that will foster better students who will improve the reputation of this school while producing high-quality graduates. The value students take from this university will increase, and the value the university gains from those students will increase just as much. Fostering an environment of quality students who have worked hard to earn the right to study here will create a motivated, exemplary community.
The fact is there are other options for those who are not accepted into this institution. Missouri alone boasts several other public schools where applicants can receive a collegiate education. MU doesn’t have to put the entire world on its shoulders.
Presently, Mizzou taunts possible applicants by creating an illusion of being able to provide for each student when it cannot. How many students have applied for parking passes for the Virginia Avenue parking garage because the application falsely showed the spots as available, only to find out they’ve been given a parking spot in a lot on the outer edges of campus? How many applicants have been enticed by the dining halls, recreation center and shuttle transportation only to find that each comes with an hour-long wait? MU cannot say it values its students when it does not guarantee freshman housing and will let students elbow each other to compete for room and facility use.
This is a prime opportunity for the University of Missouri-Columbia to raise itself to a new level, one founded on increased improvement across the board by being just slightly more selective. It’s embarrassing that MU boasts about record enrollment when that enrollment isn’t necessarily a sign of how popular our school is but a reflection on how easy it is to get into.
This is an issue students have been silent on – you could say concerns were drowned out in the crowd – but it won’t be long before MU gets a reputation for herding in as many students it can get money from while letting them fend for themselves once admitted. It begins at the beginning: with an application.
