Laila A. Thurman
Professor Weaver
English 1102
21 April 2022
The Impact On-Campus and Off-Campus Living Arrangements Have on Student Success
When students are accepted into the college of their dreams and are preparing to confirm their acceptance, there’s a certain process they go through. They cancel their other applications, call their parents to celebrate, check their financial aid package and begin to excitedly complete their next steps process.
Eventually, they’ll get to a screen that asks a simple, straightforward question, “Will you be living on campus; select yes or no.”
It’s an easy question to answer for some. But, for others, a bit more thought must be put into it before they can decide.
Some common questions run through their mind, such as:
How do the dorms look? Are they modern enough?
If they live off-campus, will their home be a reasonable distance away?
If they live on campus, will RAs be as big of an issue as they’re made out to be?
So many questions, so many outcomes, all hinging on one ‘yes or no’ question.
For being such an important consideration for college students, housing is rarely thought about outside of the aesthetics of Greek Life or the dread of a communal bathroom. But why is that? How can something so important be handled with such a blasé attitude? Don’t students know just how deeply housing can affect their college experience? How deeply it can affect their success?
The answer is they don’t.
At least, they don’t have a deep level of understanding. Most students will choose their housing option based on surface-level information. They don’t consider how the environment they live in will affect the environment school will become.
Currently, there are plenty of housing offices that help on-campus (i.e., residential) students make the best of their college experience.
Here are some examples of this:
They’re provided with Residential Assistants, also known as RAs, whose jobs are to optimize their living experience. Solving issues that pop up between roommates and checking the living spaces of students to make sure they’re being responsible and staying safe.
They’re also placed in prime locations that are near school amenities and services such as dining halls, school buildings, faculty offices, and recreation centers.
Residential students are cared for in a way off-campus (i.e., commuter) students have not seen since the 1970s.
After the 1913 Gott v. Berea College case. Which opened the door for colleges to stand in loco parentis” or in the place of a parent. Colleges experienced a shift in responsibility. They were given the power to involve themselves with student welfare outside of the classroom, and as this responsibility evolved, most colleges became institutions that strived to literally “be a better parent.”
Off-campus housing offices were created, and housing staff worked with students, city and state officials, and locals to find the best places for off-campus students to live. According to Kate Rousmaniere, author of the article, “What Happened to Your College Town: The Changing Relationship Between Higher Education and College Towns,” the goal of these offices was to “designate and maintain appropriate housing lists which would indicate to students that the listed property had passed health and safety inspections and university provisions.”
This level of care and involvement from universities in the goings-on of commuter students has not been seen in the decades since off-campus housing offices lost power. Currently, on-campus housing has become the most popular living arrangement, and in the eyes of students and universities alike, on-campus living is the only way to receive a fulfilling college education.
America has become enamored with the idea of the dorm.
America has become bewitched by the thought of Greek Living.
America has become addicted to the idea that the only way for students to take advantage of their education is for them to live on-campus.
Students who live off-campus are often accused of being less serious about their studies and less willing to pursue higher education. They are also seen as less valuable members of their college communities, and oftentimes, they face ridicule from the very institutions that make their college experience as unengaging as it is.
While it is true that most of the issues that arise with students who live off-campus result in lower grades, less engagement with their universities, less dedication to their classes, and lower retention rates, these results are not solely the fault of commuter students. The lack of attention being placed on off-campus housing has damaged the way these students receive their education.
College is not just about going to classes and getting a passing grade, though that is a major part of it, college is about the experience it can give to students. Study abroad programs, movie nights, concerts, playing bingo, all of these different socialization opportunities are very important ways colleges help their students succeed.
After all, when a feeling of community is present, students are more likely to remain at a university to pursue higher education.
To really understand the role housing has on students’ college success, we must begin by focusing on ‘good housing, ‘i.e., On-campus living arrangements.
At most universities, living on-campus looks a little something like this.
Let’s assume that our hypothetical student is taking the standard 12 credit hours per semester.
Two classes each day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.
Between classes, they give themself several hours to return to their dorm and relax while completing homework. If they run into an issue, it’s no problem. They can just drop by the tutoring center or ask a classmate who happens to live down the hall.
Once they complete their work, they could nap or go to the recreation center and work out.
A few hours later, before they go to their next class, they head to the dining hall, which just so happens to be less than five minutes away from where they live.
They eat a full meal, prepared by the staff, of course, before heading to their second class.
By the time their day completes, they’ll have taken advantage of several different amenities and services provided by the university. All of which are easy to use and locate as a residential student.
According to Ryan Bronkema and Nicolas Bowman, authors of A Residential Paradox?: Residence Hall Attributes and College Student Outcomes, living on campus is one of the most important college experiences. Living in a dorm or suite or even a university apartment can contribute to a wide range of learning, cognitive, attitudinal, educational, and psychosocial attainment outcomes.
In layman’s terms, living on-campus results in a more well-rounded student. There’s a sense of belonging and integration that has been thought to lead to greater educational attainment. However, this doesn’t mean that residential students get higher grades than commuter students. Instead, greater educational attainment refers to residential students having a larger percentage of their population who attend a majority of their classes, make connections with their professors and other faculty members, and complete the courses they enroll in while continuing to pursue higher education.
Now, it’s time to explore what off-campus living looks like.
Once again, let’s assume that during the school year, our hypothetical student takes the standard 12 credit hours a semester.
They have to take two classes a day, but the way these classes must be organized is a bit less forgiving.
Instead of these classes being spread out over the morning and the afternoon, our hypothetical student has to put the classes closer together in order to avoid traffic and make time to study while at school.
Before leaving, they must consider the time it takes to get to school in the morning on top of the time it will take them to walk to their class. If they drive, they must consider how heavy traffic is. If they use public transport, they have to run on a very tight schedule to make sure they catch their bus or train at the exact right time. And, if they use rideshare apps like Uber and Lyft, they’ll have to hope that 1.) they have enough money to pay for the driving costs and 2.) that the estimated time on the app is actually the amount of time it will take for that driver to arrive.
Once they arrive, they’ll head to their first class of the day, and once that class ends, they’ll give themselves around 30 minutes to find a place to sit and relax and try to do some homework before leaving for their second class.
By the time this student finishes their classes, they’ll head to the dining hall to microwave their lunch or buy something from the vending machine.
After they finish lunch, they’ll head to the library or another quiet area and begin to study and try to complete their homework. If they think the work is hard, they’ll go to the tutoring center after they’re completely finished with the work they can complete on their own. They don’t want to lose their good spot.
Once they finish, they walk all the way to the tutor, only to find a long line of students already there. And once they check the time, they realize they have to leave in the next few minutes before traffic gets too overwhelming and leaves them stuck on the highway for an hour or two.
By the time their day completes, they’ll have taken advantage of very few amenities and services offered at the university, but not for lack of trying. Amenities like libraries or dining halls are easy to enjoy and locate as a commuter student, but it can be hard to fit your school schedule around your life schedule when you have to factor in the extra time actually commuting to and from campus will take up.
As you can see from the average day of a commuter student, it is harder to reach greater educational attainment.
Unlike residential students, commuters don’t have their entire life stationed on campus. There is no bed to nap in when they’re waiting for their next class; for some, there is no dining hall to look forward to. There is no classmate down the hall to rely on. But most importantly, there is no time to truly relax while on-campus.
Unlike residential students, commuters see their school as just that, a school.
It’s not home.
It’s not a comfy place to nap.
It’s not the place to shower and change into their favorite pajamas.
It’s just a place to learn, and sometimes, it’s a place where random events take place.
Through no fault of their own, and for better or worse, these students lack the ability to take advantage of certain college benefits. Living off-campus makes it difficult to wait things out and to be there when important activities pop up. There’s a level of planning that goes into every interaction commuter students have with their campus, and that can make it difficult to go beyond the bare minimum, especially when that bare minimum is already so difficult for some to commit to.
The experiences that college students have depends on them and their school. There is no one size fits all experience that describes all types of students, and what has been described is only meant to create an idea of what these two types of housing options could offer the students who experience them.
In the end, living either on or off-campus contributes to student success in more ways than just getting eight hours of sleep vs. none at all. Full range meal plans, access to schools’ resources, quick commutes from home to class, along with several other benefits, are offered almost exclusively to students in on-campus housing. And even when commuters get the option to use these resources, their involvement is almost always an afterthought.
Having access to all of these things with little fanfare means that students who live on campus have an already obvious advantage over students who don’t. And, despite going to the same universities and paying for the same level courses, it’s no secret that these institutions are more focused on residential students than they are on commuters. Sure, the resulting difference is less likely to present itself in Grade Point Averages, but GPAs are only one part of why students are labeled as successful. The advantage of residential students is more than just grades; it’s the access they have to the full college experience.
Works Cited
Rousmaniere, Kate. “What Happened to Your College Town: The Changing Relationship of Higher Education and College Towns, 1940-2000.” History of Education Quarterly, 2021, pp. 320–340., https://doi.org/10.1017/heq.2021.31.
Henning, Gavin. “Is in Consortio Cum Parentibus the New in Loco Parentis?” NASPA Journal, vol. 44, no. 3, 2007, pp. 538–560., https://doi.org/10.2202/1949-6605.1835.
Alfano, Halley J., and Nina B. Eduljee. “Differences in Work, Levels of Involvement, and Academic Performance between Residential and Commuter Students.” College Student Journal, 3 Nov. 2014.
Bronkema, Ryan, and Nicholas A. Bowman. “A Residential Paradox?: Residence Hall Attributes and College Student Outcomes.” Journal of College Student Development, vol. 58, no. 4, May 2017, pp. 624–630., https://doi.org/10.1353/csd.2017.0047.