On-Campus Living Requirements - Personal Statement Example

On-Campus Living Requirements In campus, living requirements are demands by s of higher learning for their students to board or live in accommodation facilities provided by the institution for a specified period. This is especially common in universities and colleges where students come from various regions of a country. On-campus living requirements for Bowling Green State University, in Ohio, requires that their students spend at least 2 years of their four-year stay at the university as on-campus residents. There are various reasons that are put forward for this requirement ranging from preserving and maintaining university traditions to ensuring that they maintain a constant retention rate of their students. Qualified personnel who train in specific and related competencies to ensure that these facilities deliver and achieve their goals and objectives manage campus residential facilities in a professional manner. According to a residing resident advisor, on-campus living requirements, for Bowling Green State University in Ohio, have illustrated more advantages than disadvantages thus, it is a recommended practice. This paper seeks to discuss on-campus living requirements, their advantages and disadvantages. A field study conducted by way of carrying out an interview on the RA at Bowling Green State University in Ohio was able to provide useful insights into the issue of on-campus living requirements. According to the interviewee respondent, the 2-year on-campus living requirement at the university has been in place since he could remember. It can be construed to an existing university tradition that is anchored in professionalism that is informed by research into the same (Davis 19). This is supported by the fact that there is a Master’s degree in Counseling and College student personnel. This means that on-campus living is a significant component of university life in the US and its university education system. It is characteristic of most institutions of higher learning in the US. The reasons accounted for this trend, tradition and/or practice is because studies have established that it promotes higher student retention rates (Garner 114). This is compared to students who live off-campus who according to the respondent from the interview exhibit higher dropout rates than those living in campus. There is a lot of research done by people in the field of higher education looking at the impact that living on campus has for students. It has been shown repeatedly that students on campus are more likely to have a higher GPA than the students who do not. They are more likely to stay at the institution and graduate than those students who do not live on campus. There are exceptions to the mandatory on-campus living requirements including if someone has ever served in the military and/or is of a certain age usually above 22 years of age. These individuals are allowed to live off-campus because they are deemed to possess the necessary and required skills and abilities to live alone. The insistence on having a mandatory on-campus living requirement is also based on the need for institutions of higher learning to raise funds. These funds are used to support other facilities and amenities in the universities other than the accommodation facilities (Kuh et al 16). On-campus living requirements are policies are supported and opposed in equal measure by both students and parents depending on the perspective one is looking at it from. On-campus living is one of those life stages where young adults get to leave their homes and start living on their own away from home. On-campus accommodation acts as a transition in the journey towards independence (Kwoka-Finning 148). Students in halls of residence learn and acquire essential life skills that help them maneuver out in the ‘real world’ when they leave these halls of residence. Halls of residence have residence advisors and counselors who are tasked with organizing and managing these accommodation facilities. There is more security for students living in campuses and it is relatively cheaper than living off-campus. This is supported by the fact that there is financial aid and meal plans on campus that are catered for by parents, and there security checks instituted by RA’s management. It is postulated that on-campus living requirements are meant to ease the learning process for beginners or freshmen at college. According to Garner (89), living on campus has many benefits including convenience, opportunities to develop life-long friendships, and it provides an environment that fosters the educational and personal growth of students. The mission of the department of Residence Services is to provide to residential students a living environment that offers support and assistance to maximize their educational opportunities (Garner 255). Their goal is to offer residential facilities, programs and services that enhance student learning and support student success. Living in an environment that promotes safety, students also benefit from the opportunity to learn about other cultures and lifestyles, form lifelong friendships and make lasting memories. The concepts of self-respect and respect for others, tolerance of and celebration of diversity, ethical behavior and personal growth are fostered. This is achieved through staff intervention; community based educational and social programs and the expectation that hall residents hold one another accountable (Garner 127). The convenience of living on campus provides students easy access to numerous campus resources such as faculty and academic advisors, the library, computer labs, residence hall dining halls and other campus facilities. Other amenities that are accessible include health centers, recreational facilities, and student organizations. Additionally, students have the opportunity to interact with university faculty outside the classroom by participating in a variety of campus-wide and residence hall programs. The benefits of on-campus living requirements do not necessarily surpass the benefits of off-campus living. On-campus living facilities are characterized by wild and unregulated partying and irresponsible behavior that has been the subject of many Hollywood movies like the American Pie and How High. These boarding facilities are breeding grounds for all sorts of anti-social behavior and possible involvement in illegal activities. It is an established fact that a majority of freshmen who engage in drug abuse are found in campus’ hall of residence (Littlefield 184). Students have a better chance of learning essential life skills off-campus than on campus because they encounter more challenges and are tasked with more responsibilities than students in campus accommodation facilities (Turley& Wodtke 520). Students in campus boarding facilities do not get to acquire any meaningful life skills as purported by some quarters of higher educators. Students in off-campus campus learn a variety of life skills that are practical in the sense that they go through experiences identical to what they face after school. This is unlike on-campus living where they are exposed to a controlled environment where the only difference from high school or the home setting is the absence of their parents or guardians. Students in off-campus accommodation learn to take care of every aspect of their lives, which prepares them for a life of taking responsibility for one’s actions. The argument that student who live off campus perform less than those in on-campus is because these studies are only one sided. This is in the sense that this evaluation is only based on academic performance in the stead of evaluating the overall performance in a student. This should be in terms of ability to cope and manage their time within given tasks and responsibilities that are replicas of the real world. Students living in off-campus accommodation facilities are bound to come out as top performers in this evaluation. Students in off-campus accommodation are able to better manage their security arrangements, which enables them to make critical decisions and choices that affect their wellbeing. On-campus living students are ill equipped to deal and/or manage some challenges that are encountered in in the real world. The best way to prepare someone for an event in his or her life is to expose an individual to a replica of the envisaged event. On-campus accommodation can be construed be a transitional stage in an individual’s entry into adulthood, but it is not comparable to off-campus accommodation. The controlled environments offered by on-campus accommodation facilities only have the advantage of working towards improving student’s academic performance. This can be seen as going against commonly voiced intentions by higher education institutions of offering a well-rounded education and equipping students with life skills. Life skills that are acquired in campus accommodation facilities are less than desirable because these facilities have become the breeding extremely wayward skills and abilities. On-campus living does not prepare a student for the outside world because of its controlled nature. Off-campus accommodation on the other hand provides a real world situation for to the student who has to manage and cope with each aspect of this life as they attend school. These students are more adept at life when they finish school and they exhibit natural or more experience in dealing with life’s challenges compared to those who have had time with on-campus living. On-campus living has an added disadvantage of having their students encounter adjustment issues if they decide to venture into off-campus accommodation after the required 2-year mandatory period. Work Cited Davis, Janet. "Participatory design for sustainable campus living." CHI'10 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM, 2010. Garner, J. N. Students Helping Students: A Guide for Peer Educators on College Campuses. 2nd Edition. New York: John Wiley & Sons. 2010. Print. Kuh, George D., et al. Student success in college: Creating conditions that matter. John Wiley & Sons, 2010. Kwoka-Finning, S. M. The Effect of a Sophomore Year Experience On-campus Living- learning Community: Participants' Sense of Meaning in Life, Academic Self-efficacy, and Satisfaction. South Carolina: Clemson University, Education. 2009. Print. Littlefield, D. Metric Handbook. 3rd Revised Edition. London: Routledge. 2013. Print. Turley, Ruth N. Lopez, and Geoffrey Wodtke. "College residence and academic performance: Who benefits from living on campus?." Urban Education 45.4 (2010): 506-532. Read More