What students really think about the three-year on campus housing requirement

When I first entered WFU, I was told that I was required to live on campus for at least three years.

As a freshman, this didn’t bother me—who wouldn’t want to live at the heart of the action with your closest friends? However, as a rising junior with high school friends already living the independent life in downtown apartments or off campus houses, and with personal financial pressures building, I began to rethink this seemingly innocent housing policy.

Turns out I wasn’t the only one.

Some insight into the background of the policy came from the Director of Residence Life & Housing, Matthew Clifford. Apparently, Wake had a two-year on campus housing requirement up until 2011, when the current policy was enacted. When asked for the reason behind this change, Clifford said: “it is very much in line with the University’s mission to ‘sustain a vibrant residential community with a broad-based program of service and extracurricular activities’.”

In other words, much like my freshman assumption, the goal was to promote the values of a close-knit community that comes with living together.

Some students appreciate the current policy. “I like the policy we have now—I think, as a smaller school, it is important for students to live on campus as a way to strengthen the community,” says Raquel Broehm, a senior who decided to spend all four of her college years in Wake’s dorms.

She added: “I prefer being closer to everything, like my classes, the cafeteria, and other friends.” Yet, “I understand some people would rather live off campus with their closest friends because it allows them more independence and every day freedoms.”

Jennifer Daye, a current sophomore at Wake, argues that the currently policy “isn’t fair, and we should have a free choice in whether we decide to live on or off campus after freshman year.” She says that despite guaranteed four year housing, the quality of that housing is so varied that chances are, without a good registration time, you are left in less-than-stellar conditions (think mold in Davis and cockroaches in Poteat). Daye says she finds it even more unfair due to the high cost of tuition.

Freshman Vanessa Prathab says the three-year housing policy “has a strong social impact—some of my closest friends live on the same floor as me and I have made countless other friends living on campus that I would not have met if I lived off campus.”

Yet, even as a freshman, she says she is beginning to feel the financial burden of being required to pay for on campus housing.

If we look at the cost of living difference between on- and off-campus apartments, the gap is a rather significant $3,736. For the 2016-2017 school year, the cost of apartment living on campus totaled $10,420 a year, with the cheapest meal plan available to on campus students bringing it up to $12,128.

However, according to Rent Jungle, the average cost of an apartment in the Winston-Salem area is $812 a month, or $7,308 per school year, plus the option of an even cheaper commuter meal plan that brings the total to only $8,392 a year—even less if you split it with a roommate or two. That’s a lot of numbers to swallow, but it’s pretty obvious that off campus costs go down easier.

When I set out to report on the pulse at Wake on this housing policy, I thought I’d emerge with a unanimous consensus. However, the impact of the policy really depends on the individual student.

While the ability to live off-campus is financially advantageous, the social impact of being able to remain on campus for at least three years has its own perks.

Due to the varying perspectives on campus, Wake may want to review this policy and offer the option of off campus living sooner than their senior year of college.