At Baylor, all freshmen are required to live on campus. The requirement to live on campus encourages students to be involved with others in their dorm. The dorms at Baylor also have problems, like a lack of space and particularly lack of space to study. To combat the issue of lack of study space, the Baylor administration needs to limit the number of students in the dorms and increase quiet communal space in the dorms for the purpose of studying.
Baylor can’t expect all the freshmen will comfortably fit in these dorms. It is currently a requirement that students stay in the dorms during their freshman year at Baylor. To limit the number of students on campus it should be optional to stay in the dorms as a freshman and not required. Giving students the option to stay in the dorms or not would reduce the number of student in dorms.
Priority to choose to live in dorms should be given by the date a freshman makes their initial deposit to secure their spot in the freshman class. After the number of freshmen that put their deposit in and choose to live in the dorms is at a capacity, students that put the deposit in after should have to find housing off campus.
Having freshmen have adequate space to study and to feel more comfortable in dorms would really increase the quality of their experience at Baylor. Not overfilling would open up study space since many “study rooms” in the dorms have been turned to dorm rooms. Some study spaces are open and available but some study space is not. Another issue with studying is that in the actual dorm rooms there is a problem with noise. If fewer freshmen are in a dorm hall it will naturally reduce the noise of talking or walking through the halls.
Making these changes will increase the quality of life for all students who live in the dorms, benefiting them by giving them a living environment conducive to learning, and benefiting Baylor by increasing average GPA and student retention. I would highly recommend that these changes are at least considered.
– Evergreen, Colo., sophomore Hannah Luce
Pre-business major
