Next year’s freshmen may be the last to enjoy the freedom of living off campus.
At the LSU Board of Supervisors meeting Thursday, the Academic and Student Affairs, Achievement and Distinction Committee passed a recommendation to implement a first-year residency requirement. The full board is expected to vote today to determine whether the plan will be executed.
Chancellor Sean O’Keefe presented the recommendation.
“This has been a very lively, debated and discussed policy,” O’Keefe said.
He said it certainly has not gone without controversy.
Freshman retention rates and graduation rates are the most compelling reason for his support of the plan. He cited a study that found on-campus students are 7 percent more likely to remain in college from their freshman to sophomore year and 10 percent more likely to graduate within four to five years.
O’Keefe said the University needs to implement programs that are working for its peer groups. He said 10 out of 12 Southeastern Conference schools have a first-year residency requirement.
O’Keefe said this is just one of many elements that must be addressed to raise both retention and performance rates. He also wants to minimize class sizes, increase course offerings and make counselors and faculty more available to students.
Beginning in 2009, first-year students would be required to live on-campus with a few exceptions. The requirement would be implemented as a three-year trial. After those three years, the results would be reviewed.
First-year students who are 21 or older, married, have dependent children or live with their parents would be exempt from living on campus.
O’Keefe said that because of the exemptions, the percentage of freshmen living in residential halls would probably only rise from 61 percent to about 70 percent and that the campus has the capacity to support that rise.
He said this would result in the University housing an additional 200 to 300 students, which would not be a significant change in the overall housing capacity. The 2007 freshman class, however, consists of 4,596 students. With current enrollment rates, a 10 percent increase in on-campus freshmen would result in about 400 to 500 students, doubling the number that the chancellor predicted.
The recommendation passed in the committee with only one opposing vote by Student Government President Cassie Alsfeld.
Alsfeld said she understood the value of education and the benefits of the flagship agenda. She was concerned about the current conditions of facilities, specifically those involving student health and safety. She pointed out that Herget and Miller, two residential halls that many freshmen occupy, are not scheduled for renovations in the next five years.
“I am concerned about the timing of this and the overall plan of this because I still think there are a lot of kinks that need to be worked out,” Alsfeld said. Alsfeld also questioned how much funding would be committed to parking, lighting, regular health and safety inspections, and a bus route around the dorms in light of the increase in residents.
Board members James P. Roy and Roderick K. West agreed that “the devil is in the details.” Roy said there was a fundamental problem in assuming that everyone within a 25 mile radius of the University will make better grades.
“Let the data drive the policy,” West said. He referred to the recommendation as “watered down.”
—-Contact Emily Holden at [email protected]