BOT must make housing changes
Observer editorial
The Board of Trustees should take the Office of the Student Body President's "Plan to Improve Residential Life" seriously. With more than half of the senior class currently living off- campus and the exodus from campus housing increasing each year, it is time for the Notre Dame administration to take a hard look at the status of residential life at the University.
Student sentiment regarding on-campus housing has been consistently ignored by the BOT. As a result, the campus-centered atmosphere of the University has been put in jeopardy. When former student body president Brooke Norton proposed her off-campus village plan last year, board members disregarded her and carried on their own conversation during her presentation. This time, they must listen. If Notre Dame wants to preserve its unique community tradition, changes must be made.
The proposed plan to build new dorms on campus that include suite and/or apartment style amenities and to renovate other dorms to also include those features reflects a positive step in student-administration relations. The students are reaching out and the administration needs to do the same.
Most students responding to last year's Campus Life Council survey concerning on-campus housing indicated that they would prefer suite and/or apartment style housing to the current dorm system. This study and the trend of students moving off-campus should indicate that there is a pervasive dissatisfaction with the current state of on-campus housing concerning parietals and single-sex only dorms, which students cite as a reason for leaving campus.
The recommendation does not come as a surprise. Student discontent with on-campus policy has been vocal, yet ignored. From the parietals campout two years ago to the alcohol policy protests last year, students have time and again challenged an administration that has categorically stonewalled them.
But the CLC report was not all dismal. The study showed that 80 percent of students who were either living or planning to live off campus would move back or stay if they were offered more acceptable housing options.
The Board of Trustees needs to seriously consider the Office of the Student Body President's plan. But whether or not they accept it, they need to make changes to the current system of on-campus housing. As the University has developed, its housing system has been left behind. It's time for Notre Dame to give students a campus on which they want to live by offering a choice of on campus housing styles, ending the single-sex only dorm system and abolishing parietals.
Time and again, the students have called for these changes and time and again they have been denied. But now the Board of Trustees is faced with an option: make changes or watch Notre Dame's campus atmosphere continue to deteriorate.
All Viewpoint Stories for Friday, October 4, 2002
