BRUTUS SAYS LIVE HERE

The Dispatch reported today that OSU is considering requiring sophomore students begin living on campus in the coming years. As of right now this is all talk. No buildings have been proposed and no financing lined up- so we are told. Currently there are 6,000 sophomores enrolled at OSU, 2,900 of which live on campus. What surprised me about the article is that there is no discussion of the potential effect this may have on the Columbus housing and apartment rental market especially in the University District. Another threat would be to local merchants who serve the student population. It is true that many second year students live at home and most do not live alone but this decision can have some pretty bad effects. I am definitely interested to see what comes out of the Trustee meeting and if any realty managers or landlords come out in opposition to this plan.

OSU may require sophomores to live on campus
Thursday, January 31, 2008 12:20 PM
By Kathy Lynn Gray
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Ohio State University sophomores, about 6,000 strong, would have to live on campus under a proposal the trustees are considering today.

President Gordon Gee is pushing for the change, fueled by studies that show on-campus students graduate quicker, have higher grades and are happier at school, Provost Joseph Alutto said this morning.

“This is all being driven by a concern for academic priorities,” Alutto said. “We have all the resources on campus for students to excel. They take full advantage of those things when they live on campus.”

OSU now requires freshmen to live on campus, although those whose families are in the area can live at home.

OSU houses 9,800 students on campus now. About 5,600 are freshmen and about 2,900 are students living in campus housing for a second year, said Rich Hollingsworth, vice president for student affairs.

Requiring sophomores to live on campus would mean adding enough housing for at least 3,500 students, Hollingsworth said.

How that would be done hasn't been decided, Alutto said. He and other OSU officials will discuss possibilities at a trustee committee meeting today.

Alutto couldn't say how quickly the housing could be added or what it would cost but said “we want to get it done as quickly as possible.”

Gee also wants to speed up $196.9 million in planned renovations to current dormitories, which include adding air conditioning and more private bathrooms as well as eliminating rooms housing more than two students. Those improvements would be completed by the fall of 2012. Under the prior plan, they wouldn't have been completed until 2014 or 2015.

Vanderbilt University in Nashville, where Gee was president before returning to OSU in the fall, required all students to live on campus.

Many Ohio public universities require sophomores to live on campus, Alutto said. At Miami University in Oxford, the requirement goes into effect this fall.