PROVIDENCE – Meeting new roommates, decorating one’s dorm room and making an acres-large campus one’s home for several months are all part of a student’s annual college experience.
In some cases, residing on campus is just as required for students as it is for them to attend class.
Six of the 10 four-year colleges and universities within Rhode Island – all of them private institutions – require their students to live on campus for at least their first two years while earning their coveted diplomas. Johnson & Wales University next year will become the third such institution to require undergraduate students to live in on-campus housing for their first three years, joining nearby Brown University and Providence College in having that mandate.
The University of Rhode Island in South Kingstown, Rhode Island College in Providence and the New England Institute of Technology in East Greenwich all do not require students to reside on campus. RIC spokesperson John Taraborelli told Providence Business News that the college is primarily a “commuter school” and has no plans to introduce a residency policy for its students, while URI spokesperson Dave Lavallee says the state university wants to provide that option for students to live off campus.
Bryant University only requires student athletes to reside on campus, university spokesperson Karen Greco said, given the close proximity to the athletic facilities on campus and team practice and event schedules.
The institutions with multiyear residency requirements told PBN they view their policies as a way to help with student retention, create a vibrant campus community and also be cognizant of the ongoing housing crisis across the state. Plus, they do not feel student choice on housing for college is being taken away and are at risk of losing potential students because exceptions can be granted by the institutions, and some colleges do not have enough dorms on campus to accommodate all students.
JWU Providence Campus President Marie Bernardo-Sousa told PBN the university went from requiring students living on campus for two years to three because according to their research, students living on campus perform better in the classroom due to them being closer to faculty and support services. She said JWU’s new three-year policy, which goes into effect next academic year, will help students succeed academically and graduate from the university in a “timely manner” to achieve career goals.
Student retention is also a focal point for JWU’s new on-campus residency policy, Bernardo-Sousa says, with JWU looking to boost its enrollment numbers. Per PBN research, JWU’s undergraduate enrollment has dropped by close to half over the last six academic years from 7,267 full-time undergraduate students in 2017-18 to just 3,971 in 2022-23.
“I definitely think [the new policy] will help with retention rates,” Bernardo-Sousa said.
Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island School of Design in Providence and Salve Regina University in Newport each require students to reside on campus for two years. RISD spokesperson Jaime Marland says its policy has to do with limited dorm space on campus as to why the art school’s on-campus residence policy is a year shy of Brown’s, PC’s and now JWU’s.
[caption id="attachment_454203" align="alignright" width="429"]
SALVE REGINA UNIVERSITY has about 1,200 residential beds available for students, which is about 950 shy to accommodate the entire student body. / COURTESY SALVE REGINA UNIVERSITY[/caption]
Ditto for Salve, which only has about 1,200 residential beds available on campus. That is about 950 short to accommodate all students on campus, Salve President Kelli J. Armstrong told PBN.
Plus, Salve has been in a yearslong battle with the city of Newport over constructing new dorms, with finally some breakthrough. Last year, the city’s zoning board of appeals
approved Salve’s request to build one new residence hall, but denied another. However, with the new dorm adding 150 new beds on campus, Salve looks to directly house about 75% of its students.
“Once that [residence hall] is built, we will have more capacity to house our upper-class students,” Armstrong said. “It will help our students and the families want their sons and daughters on campus. It adds to the community when people are here.”
Bernardo-Sousa says JWU does have the dorm capacity to implement its new three-year policy, barring the university maintains its first-year enrollment count of 1,200 new students each year.
Both Bernardo-Sousa and Armstrong said students living off campus is causing limited housing opportunities for the public in both Providence and Newport, respectively, further complicating the state’s housing crisis where rental costs for current housing are sky high.
“There’s some in [Providence] city government believe that part of [the housing crisis] is because of students are in the rental market,” Bernardo-Sousa said. “So, we had this opportunity to look at this policy, make some changes in our housing stock and develop a policy … to give students the tools they need to academically successful.”
Sullivan also said some rental costs are so high in Newport, it may be more affordable for students to live on the Salve campus than within the city.
All schools with on-campus residency requirements, including JWU and Salve, do allow for students to apply for certain exemptions, such as if they live at home with their parents or guardians within close proximity to the campus, if they live with a married spouse or for health reasons. Bernardo-Sousa says JWU students seeking exemptions would need to apply by July’s first tuition payment date.
The institutions also offer some financial assistance and price reductions for room and board – which is an additional cost to the tuition bill. JWU, Bernardo-Sousa says, reviewed its housing price structure to offer “some affordable options” for students compared to what they would pay in the rental market.
“I think our students will be pleased when they see our new pricing structure for our residence halls,” she said. “So, any student who finds themselves … experiencing difficulty, they can reach out to our financial planning team to see if additional aid is available.”
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
