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Home News Concordia Considers New Housing Policy

Students meet for Spanish Bible Study in the lounge of Jonathan Hall in fall 2016. Photo by Jenna O’Laughlin.

 

by Abigail Wisniewski

 

Students might be able to move to off-campus housing more quickly in their academic careers beginning in fall 2017 if a new housing policy is approved. The proposed changes would allow students with 90 credits to live off campus, an update from the current housing policy which requires students to have lived on campus for three years and be 21 in order to move.

According to Vice President of Student Affairs Gene Brooks, the current policy has created some confusion regarding the two requirements. The new policy is meant to create a more concrete requirement.

“We don’t want to change what the effect of the policy is supposed to do,” Brooks said.

The current housing policy was intentionally designed to ensure Concordia remains a residential campus where most of the undergrad students live in on-campus housing. Keeping the residence halls as full as possible also helps to keep the cost lower for all students.

No official changes have been made yet, as Brooks is still researching what the effect of the new policy might be. The proposed update was presented by Brooks to the Student Senate on April 11.

“It could be that way more people than I think could end up having 90 credits before the end of their junior year, and that could significantly reduce the number of people that are on campus,” Brooks said, “That’s something I’m trying to dig into a little bit closer right now.”

There is also a concern that students under 21 may be able to live off-campus with the new policy in effect.

Brooks said it is not an issue of whether students are responsible enough to live off-campus, but rather that someone under 21 might be living with others who 21 and are legally able to drink alcohol, putting everyone in the apartment or house into potentially difficult situations.

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