With MU enrolling the largest freshman class in its history (again), the Department of Residential Life was left scrambling to find housing for students who signed up by the May 15 deadline, which guaranteed them on-campus housing.
Some of those students are heading into their eighth week living on campus, but in temporary rooms.
Residential Life’s defense of housing students with student staff tends to hinge on the idea that freshmen living on campus do better academically and socially than students who don’t. But students living in temporary situations are left building up relationships and routines in a place that will inevitably push them out the door.
These students are on-campus, as promised, but not in a way Residential Life should be proud of. Whether they’re living as a guest for the first two weeks or months of their college careers, it isn’t healthy. It’s stressful and anxiety-filled. They deserve better.
These students made the deadline for housing, just not in time to be placed where they belong. Instead of beginning their freshman year like the majority of students do, they’re forced to basically squat in someone else’s room, waiting for another freshman to move into a fraternity or sorority house or to drop out all together. Some of these students are desperate to be immersed in the school. By denying them somewhere to really call home, they can’t be.
Ultimately, they’re not given the quality learning environment residence halls promise. For these students, the uncertainty of their situation overshadows the benefits of on-campus housing.
Residential Life prides itself on not just offering dormitories. They offer more than just a bed to sleep in, they say. But for these students, that’s exactly what they are: a temporary bed in a community from which they’ll eventually be forced out. That’s no way to begin their time at MU.
The only way to really solve the housing issues is to cap enrollment, and we know Residential Life has no hand in that decision. It’s the Office of Admissions’ responsibility to realize the repercussions of its low acceptance standards. By having an easy application process and automatic admission for applicants with an ACT score of 24, MU is bound to attract unmotivated students. That’s bound to have an effect on Residential Life.
Those unmotivated students occupy beds on campus for a few weeks or months or an entire semester while other students, students trying to find the grounding they need to succeed here, are left feeling like visitors in what’s supposed to be their new home.
Residential Life knows some students are bound to leave, that’s why it promises housing for more students than it has beds. The disconnect is found in the Office of Admissions.
Admissions has no plans to implement an admissions cap, so, unless Residential Life acts, enrollment will continue to grow exponentially while its number of beds stays stagnant. Residential Life already has plans to expand, outlined in its [Master Plan](http://reslife.missouri.edu/RLMPnew/), but it must do more. By lowering the number of beds allotted to upperclassmen, it can open up a few more spaces for incoming students. No senior, unless he or she has a pressing need to live on campus, should be taking a space away from a freshman. Beyond that, Residential Life needs to restructure ROAR (Residents’ Online Access to Rooms). By catering more to students who preference Freshman Interest Groups or specific Learning Communities, those students looking to get involved would be able to find permanent rooms more easily.
Regardless of how these beds are found, one thing is obvious: providing freshmen with a bed in which to sleep is not the same as giving them a home. These students are still waiting for a permanent residence; one they should have had their first day on campus. Residential Life is almost two months late on keeping its promise of providing permanent on-campus housing. For the class of 2017’s sake, we hope Residential Life and other MU departments will take the necessary steps to avoid this next year.
