3/12/2004

Students weigh on, off-campus picks

Anne-Margaret Sobota
Daily Kent Stater

Privacy. Neighbors. Ability to study. These are all things students have to consider when deciding whether to remain on campus or move into an apartment or house.

Some students love living in the residence halls and others can’t wait to move out.

Residence Services Director Azfar Mian said there’s a perception among students that it’s a rite-of-passage to move off campus.

“The dorms are all right,” said senior justice studies major Mitch Keener. “But everybody sort of moved out after the second year, so I just went with them.”

Keener said he had fun at many of his friends’ houses who lived off campus, and he didn’t like having visitation restrictions in the residence halls.

On the other hand, there are many students who said the benefits of living on campus outweigh those of apartment living.

“The biggest benefit would be, and the students have told us pretty consistently, that it is the convenience factor,” Mian said. “They have close access to the library, the Student Center, the Eastway Center, and they have access to academic buildings.”

Mian added students enjoy not having to pay several bills each month.

“It’s one bill which takes care of everything,” he said. “You do not have to worry about paying an electric bill, a telephone bill, a water bill, a gas bill or an Internet access bill.”

The 24-hour computer labs and dining facilities are also very attractive to students, Mian added.

“Living in the residence halls is very convenient,” junior history major Jenny Tabatabaie said. “There is always somewhere to park, and I can have my car here.”

Tabatabaie said she met most of her current friends by living on campus, and she loves the sense of community in many of the residence halls.

But some students have had mixed experiences living in the residence halls.

Senior visual communication design major Katie Inverso has lived in the Honors College the past three years. She said she has enjoyed living there because it is “like a house”—her neighbors always have their doors open, and they know one another.

Not all residence halls are this way, though.

“As far as upperclassman dorms go, I hate the fact that no one talks or is friendly,” Inverso said.

Even though she has enjoyed living on campus, Inverso said she would move off campus if she could afford a car to get to and from campus.

Other students couldn’t wait to get their own house or apartment with friends. Senior fashion design major Nicole Arnold only lived in the residence halls one semester her freshman year. Now, she lives in a house on Sunnybrook Road, off state Route 261.

“It’s such tight quarters in the dorms,” Arnold said. “You can actually fit your stuff in a house or apartment.”

Arnold shares a house with three other girls. She said she ends up paying less than she would in the residence halls because all the bills are split four ways.

Arnold said the biggest problems when she lived in the residence halls were she had a hard time studying, and she didn’t have the space she needed to work on her fashion projects.

Erik Davies, senior justice studies major, lives in White Hall Terrace.

“I like the apartment better because it’s more privacy,” Davies said. “You don’t have to worry about security coming to your door.”

Being off campus is better for him, he said, because he’s a smoker and also doesn’t have to worry about having over as many people as he wants.

The Department of Residence Services realizes that many students are adamant about moving out of the residence halls but don’t want to lose the perks of being close to campus, Mian said. So the department decided to open up part of the Allerton Apartments for students to live in next year.

“We are combining the need and want of apartment style housing with the conveniences of living on campus,” he said.

E-mail: asobota@kent.edu