Arizona State University will start a new policy that truly expects incoming freshmen to live on campus. Incoming freshmen students who cannot live on campus will have to apply for exemptions to the policy.
Michael Coakley, ASU’s Associate Vice President of University Student Initiatives and the Executive Director of University Housing, revealed the new policy to ASU’s Residential Hall Association at RHA’s Thursday meeting.
“We’ve said it for the last couple of years that we expect students to live on campus. But we haven’t been able to do it,” said Coakley during his presentation. “Now we’re at a point where we can do it.”
The policy’s effectiveness will coincide with the opening of the Barrett Residential College, expected to open in fall 2009.
Incoming freshmen students will be able to apply for exemptions. Some examples of viable reasons are poor financial situations, having to take care of family and being a non-traditional freshman (not recent high school graduates). This would allow ASU to identify students who need financial aid and did not initially take advantage of it, said Coakley.
If they wish, students can still request to live in residential halls outside of their major’s campus. Those requests will be granted on a case-by-case basis.
Part of the reason for the change is the poor retention rate for students who live off-campus, which “are in the low sixties,” said Coakley. He said the retention rates for students who live on campus are closer to the mid-eighties.
Even with the increase in freshmen, upperclassmen housing won’t become scarce, he said.
“Towers, Cholla and Vista del Sol will remain for upperclassmen,” replied Coakley when asked about upperclassmen housing. “We need to create more of that [upperclassmen housing] too because if someone gets really connected and involved and wants to stay we don’t want to say ‘No way.’”
Brendan Corrigan, Associate Director of Campus Affairs for RHA, said that Residential Life’s decision to implement required freshmen housing was not discussed with the RHA.
“When ResLife made it so that every person living on campus had to get a meal plan, they came to RHA and asked us to do research,” said Corrigan. “[This time] they’re not asking for support, they’ve already figured out what they’re going to do.”
Corrigan expects RHA to grow as a result of Residential Life’s new freshmen-housing policy. “The freshmen class keeps growing every year,” he said, adding that he expects they’ll soon grow to accommodate 10,000 freshmen students as opposed to the roughly 7,500 freshmen currently at ASU.
ASU expects to house 20,000 to 22,000 students by 2015.
The growing ASU community provides different challenges for each hall council. Jennifer Truong, president of the Center Hall Council, said they’re focused on helping students Center Complex becoming closer.
“It’s important to show [students] that there are others on campus,” she said.
RHA also addressed sustainability issues for a growing on-campus community. Corrigan said RHA is working with ASU’s Global Institute for Sustainability to improve the recycling programs in the residence halls.
