Written By: Whitney Smith
A new tradition will soon begin here at the University of North Florida. Starting fall of 2012, incoming freshmen will be required to live on campus. I totally support this new policy and think it will offer many benefits to the incoming freshmen.
One of the main reasons I support the new policy is, I feel it will help those coming straight from high school to mature more quickly. Living away from home is a major adjustment for anyone. It requires a great deal of responsibility. While living at home, students have their parents to make sure they are staying on the right track. Some parents strictly enforce going to all classes, make sure their children are studying effectively, and ensure their child is making wise choices. Away from the home, students are given more freedom to do as they please. As a student who does not live at home, I know it is difficult to force myself to study when I know my friends are doing something more interesting. Living away from home, also requires more discipline with money and eating habits. Requiring the incoming freshmen live on campus helps them grow into responsible adults.
Secondly, I feel that living on campus helps students to be more involved with campus. My first two years of school I lived almost 30 minutes away which made it hard to be involved with events on campus. In my opinion by staying on campus students will become more involved in extracurricular activities which helps improve the overall attitude about school. Being able to be involved with activities on campus also adds to a resume, which could potentially help with getting a job after college. Being more involved in school also gives students the opportunity to get away from all the stress of classes. Sometimes taking so many classes can be very tiring and extracurricular activities can allow students to have a good time and get away for a little while.
Requiring freshmen to live on campus also benefits upper classmen because it will free up more parking spaces. The freshmen class is very large and they use a large number of parking spaces making it difficult to get a decent place to park on campus. If the freshmen live in the dorms they would be able to use the dorm parking leaving more of the campus parking lots open to upperclassmen. Finding a place to park can sometimes take 30 minutes, often times making it difficult for students to arrive to class on time. With fewer freshmen parking in the commuting the student parking lots and the parking system would be much less chaotic.
Over all I feel as though requiring freshmen to live on campus is a good idea. Aside from the reasons listed above, freshmen would be able to save money on gas by not having to drive to and from school. I feel that living in a dorm and away from home is something that everyone should be able to experience at some point in life. I am very excited to see how the new policy works out this year.
Swoop Scoop 
Ya know… yes overall this would be a good idea, but what about military? or what about the people that have better accommodations than what the University is making them have to deal with? how can you sit there and completely take away that option from people, when other circumstances may not allow them to do that? If they really are going to go through with this, they should make exceptions and or a waiver process. I mean for example… I am currently military right now, looking to possibly go to UNF for a my freshman year, but yet I own a house, I am 22 years old, and you are going to try and tell me I have to live in a Dorm? negative. This whole idea about parking is also non-sense because you know that even though they may have their car over at the dorm parking area they are still going to drive to a closer parking area if possible, and even if they don’t, they will flood that dorm parking area and start going everywhere else and they will still be right where they started.
On the other hand, for those that are coming from out of the area, or that kind of situation I can see this being a good thing for because it keeps them from going out into town and wasting an unnecessary amount of money on a place that will normally put them into a contract. I can also even agree that it would make it easier to be involved in the school activities.
Basically all I am saying, is make it “highly” recommended, or at least understand circumstances. Without that, UNF will lose a lot of good prospective students.
Most local students cannot afford to live on campus. There is no way gas can equal the cost of living on campus. You are taking away the option of going to a University. Is UNF trying to weed out the locals from the campus. Do all state Universities have this requirement? It is crazy.