By Joshua Geaughan

“Tonight we came by because we wanted to talk and get input from this group as the university has been looking at some big policy decisions,” Derek Zuckerman, Associate Vice President for Student Life, addressed the floor at the November 10th student senate meeting. Zuckerman, accompanied by Vice president of Student Life Dr.John King, welcomed the student senate floor to discuss the possible ramifications and reasoning behind the administration making the switch from a two year on-campus residency requirement to a three year one. Through the proceeding conversation, the room discussed the multilateral ways that changing the residency requirement policy would both be a blessing and a boon to the students of the Roger Williams campus. 

Additionally Zuckerman stressed that housing policy also sets the cultural atmosphere around housing at a university. He explains that with some colleges, like Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire, there isn’t a large off campus student community and most students live in on campus housing for all four years. Zuckerman recognized that this on-campus culture isn’t something that can be institutionalized through school policy, but rather it needs to be reflected in the student body, and so he asked for suggestions from the student senate on ways to incentivize on campus or Almeida housing. 

“I know law students and commuter students have access to different meal plans. I think maybe opening those up to residential students for people who want some meals, because at the end of the day, it’s better for the university to have a bit of revenue, versus [students] just saying I’m not going to get a meal plan, because the smallest one I can get is still too big,” explains Student Senator Ryan Lukowicz. Multiple senators corroborated Lukowicz’s point and wished that Almeida had more dining options so Almeida residents don’t have to travel all the way to campus for food. 

The second suggestion, offered by MSU org representative Blessed Adeoye, was to model future residency halls after the bayside rooms. As part of the University’s master plan the administration is planning on knocking down maple Residency hall and building a new residency hall in the fashion of north campus residency hall. Adeoye mentioned that as the Bayside rooms are often the first chosen by students selecting rooms, if future on campus houses were fashioned in their style more people would like to live on campus. 

Following Lukowicz and Adeoye’s suggestions WRQI’s Org representative Chad Eaks asked about the potential financial benefit that the university will receive if this policy is passed. Both Zuckerman and King agreed that forcing students to stay on campus longer through implementing this policy will only drive in more profits through room cost for the university. Zuckerman states, “Well, there is a financial benefit. It’s not driving the discussion or the decision making retention and student engagement but currently, we have about 180 vacancies, and we anticipate that, just based on the size of the last two classes, the current first year students and the current sophomores that that number would go up a little bit. “

According to the Roger Williams website the average comprehensive total for a standard double room on campus and meal plan is $17,656 per year, and through the conversation at student senate Zuckerman explained that there are currently about 180 vacancies on campus. This means that if all of those vacancies were filled through this new policy the university would make an additional income of $3,178,080 

John King joined the conversation as an expert in the town and gown relationship between the town of Bristol and the university. King explained, “You all know that we’ve had some incidents in the community, and [specifically] just this semester, and we continue to have them every year. In addition, the town of Bristol is looking into the housing stock available for people that grow up in Bristol or want to work here and need to live here. And their sense is that Roger Williams University students, as well as law school students, are taking away opportunities.” 

King explains that across Bristol landlords know that they can charge four to five college students and create much denser apartment layouts than they would through renting to Bristol residents which means that, especially in downtown Bristol, apartments are being rented to undergraduate students. This creates a housing shortage in Bristol and 180 vacancies on campus. 

Zuckerman acknowledges that living on campus doesn’t work for every student at Roger, and so future juniors will be able to utilize the list of exemptions that freshman and sophomores can currently use to bypass the two year on campus residency requirement. He also hopes that with fewer students choosing to live off campus the university will be able to support the students that do through reading leasing contracts, helping mediate roommate arguments, and other resources that the university can’t do now given the number of students off campus.  

After the senate meeting King affirmed that the most important potential benefit of this policy is the increased retention on campus. The university has been battling with their retention numbers for a long time, and through the conversation at student senate, Zuckerman and King believe that this policy will help students feel a stronger connection to the campus. Zuckerman explains that other universities in the Rhode Island area all have three years on campus residency requirements (Brown, Providence College, Johnson and Wales) and he believes that this policy will be another way Roger can remain in step with the larger collegiate sphere of Rhode Island. 

Overall, Zuckerman and King believe that by changing the culture of housing on this campus there is a solution to many issues that the university currently faces. After the open floor discussion there were no further student senate discussions due to the senate not having enough senators present to vote on both procedure and possible bills that were introduced.