The University is poised to open a new residence hall and a massive new apartment complex for the fall 2018 semester. The new apartment complex, Nicholson Gateway, will also house restaurants, a grocery store and a new UREC. Despite this development in Residential Life, a report on usnews.com said only 24 percent of LSU students live on-campus.
The University plans to increase this number through several new initiatives. Beginning in the fall 2018 semester, the University will require incoming freshmen to live on campus for at least their first year, barring certain exemptions. According to an Advocate report, this will raise the percentage of freshmen who live on campus from 65 percent to 80 percent.
Despite this effort, however, it is unlikely this new rule will have a large effect on the number of students living on campus after freshman year. Many students who live on campus for their first year will choose to move off campus in their later years.
Since the rule is not yet in effect, many incoming freshmen chose to live off campus during the 2017-18 school year. Contributing factors for this include cost as well as privacy.
“I decided to live off campus because I liked the idea of having my own bedroom with my own bathroom, as well as my apartment’s own kitchen,” said mechanical engineering freshman Tyler Falk. “I think that as far as value goes, it’s a matter of preference. Some people I’m sure would prefer to be in the dorms for convenience and proximity to campus, but others, like myself, prefer the privacy of an apartment.”
However, the advantage of being close to classes is not limited to on-campus housing. Biology freshman Parker Lawrence lives at Northgate Apartments and said his walk to class isn’t much longer than many of the dorms. Despite this, Lawrence pays significantly less than he would on campus and also has the added privacy of a private bedroom.
“It would cost way more to live on campus for me,” Lawrence said.
According to the 2018-2019 rent rates chart provided by Residential Life, a two-student room with a suite bathroom would cost between $3,455 and $4,090 per semester. With a semester lasting four months, the monthly cost is about $935. Lawrence pays $499 per month for his apartment, which he shares with three roommates, as well as about $100 per month for utilities. Although the inclusion of all utilities in dorms increases simplicity, a student like Lawrence would have to use an unfathomable amount of water and electricity to pay as much as he would for a dorm.
When comparing Lawrence’s costs to on-campus apartments, the difference is more staggering. For a full-year lease, a four-bedroom, four-bathroom apartment, the kind Lawrence currently lives in, will cost a total of $10,850 at Nicholson Gateway. For Lawrence’s similarly-sized apartment, he would only pay around $7,200 total for a full year lease.
However, many things that Residential Life believes are large benefits to on-campus living are not offered by many apartment complexes, and some are not offered at all.
Residential Life provides a comparison sheet for on-campus versus off-campus housing that shows the features provided on-campus that are either sometime or never offered elsewhere. A major advantage to living on campus is added security. LSU has its own police force that is on-campus 24/7, and all dorms have three security levels of access before anyone is able to enter a room.
On-campus living also guarantees a student-only community that is not provided by off-campus apartments. Additionally, while most apartments offer maintenance services, on-campus residents get free custodial service in bathrooms, a feature not included in off-campus apartments.
Associate Director of Communications & Development for the LSU Department of Residential Life Catherine David said she believes that these kinds of services help differentiate the on-campus experience.
“Cost and value are two different things,” David said. “A lot of our intangibles fall into that value category. Because of the things and services that we provide on campus and our focus on students and not being a private organization that is only after profits, we have a different lens on how we view, work with and support students. There’s a lot that goes into it.”
This emphasis on students is exemplified by the resources students have access to on campus. All on-campus living options provide students with a resident assistant, who can be a great resource especially for new students. According to Residential Life’s 2016-17 annual report, almost a third of its expenditures went to personnel, which shows how dedicated Residential Life is to ensuring students will have help for any problems they have.

Gallery • 10 Photos

Ha-vy Nguyen

Off-campus housing statistics