$1000 reward (first year on campus rule not working out)

Parent Cafe
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<p>A housing story - I couldn’t think of the right headline for it.</p>

<p>The University of Akron (home of the Zips - we love those “Fear the Roo” shirts) had a rule that first year students who do not live in the nearby area must live on campus for their first year. They had to temporarily rescind the rule earlier for this fall because of a housing shortage. We are in the “lots of students” blip years and Akron has made some nice strides in a number of its programs. Many students were applied and decided to attend. Akron fall enrollment is up 5%, to almost 26,000 if you count the branch campuses.</p>

<p>The University found itself with 125 extra first year students who had been promised on-campus housing and came up with overflow housing - downtown hotels. (Sounds familiar from occasional reports from other schools in other cities.)</p>

<p>The University offered $1000 to any dorm-living student (plus a full refund of any housing payments already made) who would move out of a dorm rooms, to free up more spaces. 60 accepted, even though school started Aug 25 and they had been living in their dorm rooms longer than that. </p>

<p>The University is still trying to figure out what to do with the next 65. Meanwhile, those 65 are in the Radisson or in the “hotel room” portion of the Quaker Square Inn. Nice rooms :slight_smile: </p>

<p>Yes, the University of Akron will be building new dorms.
[Ohio.com</a> - UA offers incentive to move off campus](<a href=“http://www.ohio.com/news/28342464.html]Ohio.com”>http://www.ohio.com/news/28342464.html)</p>

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<p>I just cannot imagine who thought compulsory dorm living was a workable idea. What a debacle.</p>

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<p>This happens all the time. The Hyatt Regency in Cambridge has a number of rooms for Boston University students. Other colleges triple students in double rooms.
There are some real advantages to living on campus, especially in the first year.
Proctors, RAs, etc… are not there just to enforce housing rules but also to provide support, advice, etc… My S and his roommates still remember very fondly their freshman proctor and in fact are planning some kind of get-together this fall.</p>

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<p>Not at all unusual. U of Iowa set up some “barracks” style dorms along with triples and quads.</p>

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<p>I have seen a number of instances of this over the years, not always for the same reasons, but same outcomes. I am glad I have never had to deal with such circumstances.</p>