New policy to keep more students on campus

Students at Texas A&M University-Commerce will soon be required to live in on-campus housing for a minimum of two school years as administrators work to implement a new policy in regards to freshmen and sophomores.

"Students who will be coming in this fall as freshmen will be notified that there is a two-year living requirement," Dennis Koch said. "It's the same requirement that we have now for first year students, which is if you live further out than 50-miles and you're not living with your parent or legal guardian then you have to live on campus. Starting next year, it will be for two years."

Koch explained that the decision may come as a surprise to some students, but universities all over the country have similar requirements.

"About 40 percent or more of the universities and colleges in the U.S. are requiring a sophomore living requirement," Koch said. "And part of that is that we see sort of a slump in the sophomore class, of people getting disconnected and dropping out."

This decision to require students to live on campus comes at time of growth among the Commerce community with multiple off-campus housing options targeting A&M-Commerce students exclusively including the Lion's Den and the Village Creek apartments. While Koch said he thinks these living options are good for students, he does not think that they will have an effect on the plans of the university in terms of housing.

"A lot of what we're doing is replacing older buildings that are 50 years old, updating our facilities, and creating an environment where students are going to want to live on campus," Koch said. "For [students] to have both options, I think is good. That's exactly what you have when you get out of college. You've got a lot of options; ‘Do I live with family, do I live on my own, do buy a house, do I rent an apartment,' and much more."

Many freshmen, this year, were required to purchase the unlimited meal plan from the university, but currently, no decision has been made as to how the university will proceed with next year's freshmen and their dining options.

"We're not sure about that yet," Koch explained. "We still have about a year to go, but we hope to have [a decision] soon. For the sophomore dining, we haven't decided where we're going with that yet as a university, not as a department. These decisions are made at the university level."