If Syracuse University implements a three-year on-campus housing requirement, it will be one of only a few universities in the country to require students to live in university-owned residences for more than two years.

A Daily Orange analysis of the U.S. News and World Report’s 2018 Top National Universities list found only seven of the more than 100 schools studied had an on-campus residency requirement of three or four years.

Most universities with the three-year requirement were SU peer institutions and/or Atlantic Coast Conference schools. All were private. Many universities and some experts say there is a possible link between student academic performance and on-campus residency.

“We have a fair amount of research indicating that living on-campus can increase the likelihood that one will stay from first-year to second-year and will also graduate,” said Kevin McClure, an assistant professor of higher education at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

Michele Wheatly, SU’s vice chancellor and provost, said at a public forum in February the university was considering a three-year housing requirement.

The latest Campus Framework draft, a 20-year infrastructure plan SU updated this summer, includes a proposal to build new dorms on Ostrom Avenue and convert the Sheraton Syracuse University Hotel & Conference Center to student housing.

SU has yet to decide whether they will require students to live in on-campus housing for three years or build new student housing. Currently, SU students are only required to live in university-owned housing — such as dorms and South Campus apartments — for two years.

Duke University, Brown University, Georgetown University, Wake Forest University and George Washington University, at present, are the only colleges in the top 100 list that require students to live on campus for three years.

Notre Dame will introduce a three-year requirement next year, the South Bend Tribune reported last week. Vanderbilt University is the only school on the top 100 list to require on-campus housing for all four years.

Four of the schools shifted to a three-year housing requirement in the last seven years.

Wake Forest announced a three-year residency requirement in 2011. George Washington announced its new requirement in 2013, and Georgetown followed in 2014. Notre Dame announced the requirement last week.

Six of the seven schools are either an SU peer institution or in the ACC, or both. Brown is the only college that is not an SU peer institution or ACC member.

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While some SU peer institutions moved to a three-year housing requirement, two other SU peers — Southern Methodist University and Northwestern University — raised their housing requirements to two years in 2014 and 2017, respectively.

McClure said universities might be implementing longer housing requirements to appear similar to peer institutions.

“This wouldn’t be the first time that a university ceremoniously adopted a practice because other institutions that they’re aspiring to be have already done it,” McClure said.

Wheatly, at the forum in February, said research showed living on campus improves academic performance, student retention and other student life factors. She also said a 2014 MyCampus survey indicated students liked living on campus so they could have easier access to resources, such as the library.

Many schools that require students to live on campus mention this research on their housing websites.

Lauren Schudde, an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s College of Education who has studied the links between on-campus residency and retention, said there is a small correlation between living on campus and student persistence, or the percentage of students who return for a second year of college.

Students who live on campus are 3.3 percent more likely to continue college after their first year, according to one of Schudde’s journals, which was published in 2011.

“(The correlation is) not huge, but it exists,” Schudde said.

Students who can afford to live on campus as freshmen typically come from higher income backgrounds and do not have outside obligations preventing them from “excelling academically,” she said.

Schudde said it is logical for universities to consider that students living on campus will have closer ties to tutoring and study group resources. But, she added, students will likely find a way to use those resources whether they live on or off campus.

Research including SU students demonstrated that proximity to campus resources and facilities generally supported retention, academic performance, graduation and satisfaction, said Dolan Evanovich, SU’s senior vice president for enrollment and the student experience, in a statement.

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For lower-income students, an additional year spent living on campus could have a major impact on their ability to afford college, McClure said.

“It doesn’t take significant extra cost for (lower-income students) to struggle to pay their bills. It often is small increments of money that can derail their education,” McClure said.

If SU officials approve the three-year housing requirement, the university will have the second-highest room and board cost of the seven schools, according to data displayed on university websites.

Only Vanderbilt’s room and board cost, which is estimated at $15,584 per year, is more than SU’s $15,558 rate per year.

SU’s room and board includes electricity, water and a meal plan. Most off-campus apartments have cheaper rents but require students to pay for utilities, food and Wi-Fi connection.

For students that can afford the extra upfront cost of living in dorms, McClure said the possible academic benefits of living on campus an extra year could be worthwhile if it means students will graduate in four years instead of five.

“Whatever additional costs come with on-campus housing, that’s certainly going to be cheaper than if students stay an extra year or if they drop out altogether,” he said.

The three-year housing requirement is more common at private universities because many students attending private schools can probably shoulder the cost, he added.

According to The D.O.’s analysis, most public universities in the top 100 list only require students to live on campus for one year or less.

“Any institution, Syracuse included, that’s thinking of increasing the on-campus housing requirement ought to put some thought into what this means cost-wise for students,” McClure said.

Kevin Quinn, SU’s senior vice president for public affairs, said in a statement to The Daily Orange last March that the three-year housing requirement — if implemented — will apply to incoming students.

Before the university makes a decision, Quinn said SU will seek input from on- and off-campus groups. It will take years to make the change, Quinn said.

Disclaimer: The Daily Orange leases a house on Ostrom Avenue owned by Syracuse University. As part of the Campus Framework, the university has proposed building student housing on Ostrom Avenue where The D.O. currently operates.

Published on September 18, 2017 at 11:05 pm

Contact Jordan: jmulle01@syr.edu | @jordanmuller18