New OSU rule puts all enrolled freshman in campus dorms
CORVALLIS, Ore. -- Freshman will be required to live in the dorms at Oregon State University as part of a plan that officials said will enroll more returning sophomores. The move is a part of the First Year Experience program at the university, put together by a task force of OSU students, faculty and staff.
The program is aimed at increasing the current freshman retention rates through getting students more involved with the student body and better connected with their piers. OSU currently has a freshman-to-sophomore rate of just over 80%.
The FYE program concluded that the best way to accomplish these goals is to have a policy that puts each freshman in an on-campus dormitory.
Co-chair of the FYE committee and associate provost for academic success at OSU Susie Brubaker-Cole said that students return to the university if they have a connection with the campus their first year.
"A lot of this (connection) happens in the classroom, but much of it is an extension of classroom learning that reaches into life on campus and the experiences you have as a member of the campus community." Brubaker-Cole said.
The students enrolling as freshman in the Fall of 2013 will be required to live on campus for their first academic year.
Brubaker-Cole pointed out that the schools with the top retention rates all have this policy in place.
The director of University Housing and Dining services at OSU said that they will have adequate space for all incoming freshman to live on campus. They have a new dormitory building in the works that is scheduled to house students as soon as Fall term 2014.
Officials said that the new rule can be waived in some instances, the specifics of which have yet to be determined.
It is just another cog in the indoctrination gears. Part of making young people dependant. It is called control. Beware of the ways of public education, and always remember the Dewey Doctrine. Raise your children to think independently of others, to be their own person, to not be influenced by pressure, to be strong willed. If you do that you will serve them well and they will become productive members of society.
There had better be a waiver for the married veterans attending on the GI Bill. When I was a freshman, I was married and 22 years old...and had spent 3 years 10 months and 27 days in the military.Â
Wow... that "waiver" better include non-traditional students. I'm not a freshman so it won't really effect me, but they're out of their mind if they think anyone who is past their early 20s is going to want to live with a bunch of freakin 18 year-olds. There are a lot better ways to increase retention rates that to FORCE people to live in your dorm just to start their education. =/ And of the top 15 schools with the best retention rates, all of them are private institutions and many of them are Ivy League. I don't give a crap what private schools do but I DO care what policies OSU enacts, since they take my tax dollars.
It will be good for the OSU students to be "better connected with their piers"Â It will, of course, be much easier for those on the campus at the Pacific Ocean than those in Corvallis, but I'm sure that the KVALÂ person who spell-checked this article can help.Â