Friday September 28, 2001

The housing issue on campus is old and tired. This university has been beating around the bush on this subject for too long. The university doesn't have enough dorm space to house everyone who would like to live in a residence hall, and they continue throwing freshmen into unsuitable living situations. It is almost a unanimous opinion that freshmen should have priority over upperclassmen, but UA officials allow themselves to be pushed around by student opinion. It's time Residence Life and the University of Arizona administration put their foot down.

The latest student attempt at solving this problem came recently from Residence Hall Association President Ben Bush. Bush's committee came up with a plan that allows 18 percent of upperclassmen that wish to return to the residence halls to do so. The proposed 18 percent is less than the 26 percent of students that usually return to the dorms.

RHA's proposal was a noble gesture from an organization that consists almost completely of upperclassmen living in dorms and freshmen interested in staying in residence halls in the future. However, the number is too large.

Freshmen have priority to residence halls. They offer a safe, healthy and supportive environment for young students to transition into college life. The UA has a terrible freshman retention rate - last year, 24 percent of the freshman class did not return to the university.

The question is whether on-campus housing significantly and positively affects a freshman's academic success and social integration at the university, in comparison to that same student's chances while living in an off-campus residence. The answer is an unequivocal yes.

If this university wants its students to stay in school and earn a diploma, it needs to ensure that they have a room in a residence hall - Not a hotel. Not a study room. A residence hall.

The only way to do that is to kindly ask upperclassmen to find other accommodations. They had their opportunity to grow and develop in a controlled environment, and now they must take the next step and learn to live off-campus.

ASUA is concerned that these students may have problems and complaints about finding off-campus housing. But it's time for these individuals to bite the bullet. Finding an off-campus residence is an education in itself.

If an arbitrary number of upperclassmen are allowed to stay, it needs to be significantly lower than RHA's proposed 18 percent. While that would have been an accurate prediction last year, it will still be too many students for next year. For the past several years, UA has seen a growth in freshman class size while the number of available rooms has stayed the same.

Freshmen want to live in the dorms, and they ought to - for their benefit and the benefit of this university.

ASUA, RHA and Residence Life all approach this issue with sensitivity in an attempt to understand the vast problems that this university faces every year without fail. They will have meetings, conduct surveys, make proposals and pass resolutions, but it may be pointless. No matter how many students are asked, no matter how much on-campus opinion is gathered, the fact remains that there aren't enough beds for incoming freshmen. The only way to procure those beds is to kick upperclassmen out.