I believe UD only has about 7300 dorm spaces available with about 4000 taken up by freshman so this only leaves 3300 for sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Some of these spaces are taken up by Honors Program students who have scholarships including dorm space. In past years UD has had some problems in actually filling up all the dorm space for upperclassmen. They obviously, for financial reasons, would like to fill up all the spaces as most dorm students are also required to have some type of dining plan. Perhaps they are anticipating an overall shortage in future years with a probable reduction of available dorm rooms with the closing of the two largest freshman dorm complexes (Rodney and Dickenson), even with the new/renovated freshman dorms opening up this Fall. Perhaps this new plan has been formulated to address this or at least to get some idea of the number of students who are interested in staying in “on campus” housing to assist in UD’s housing planning process. I would guess it is a matter of personal perspective if this new process will increase or decrease the number of students who would want to stay on or off campus.
Actually a great portion of “off-campus” housing is actually located “on-campus” or on the fringe of it (UD even provides campus bus stops at some of these). Our DD lived in a sorority house her sophomore year and then lived in an apartment on Main Street almost right across form the UD bookstore her Jr./Sr. years. IMHO living “off-campus” can provide a student with additional life experiences ( responsibilities like dealing with leases, setting up TV/internet services, obtaining renter insurance, paying utility bills, etc.) that they would not get living “on-campus” for all 4 years. These experiences really helped our DD once she graduated and moved into her first apartment in New York City (if you can deal with these types of things in NYC you can deal with them anywhere). Just my perspective. I realize for some students that their perspective might be different but I really would not perceive living off-campus to be detrimental for most students.