 "Photo: Lauren Wesner")
The Board of Supervisors will make a decision on the proposed University freshmen residency requirement at its July 13 meeting.
Chancellor Sean O'Keefe announced June 18 that freshmen residency would be required beginning in 2009. The decision was then unexpectedly passed from O'Keefe to LSU System President William Jenkins and Board of Supervisors.
"[Jenkins] thought it should go to the Board; they wanted the debate to continue," O'Keefe said. "Everyone will get a chance to voice their opinion. It's important to know various opinions of the community."
In February the president of the faculty senate Bill Daly told The Daily Reveille that the decision was being left up to O'Keefe.
Neil Mathews, vice chancellor for student life and academics, said the decision going to the Board is a normal procedure.
"This is a policy change," Mathews said. "Those decisions are not unusual issues going to the Board since this is associated with the Flagship Agenda as well as graduation rates. This affects the reputation of the University."
Mathews and O'Keefe said this debate has arisen at least three times over the last 10 years. O'Keefe said he is ready for a decision to be made.
"This has been debated all year long, I'm ready to move on," O'Keefe said.
O'Keefe said the passage of time has allowed for more views on the issue.
"This can't be described as a rushed decision," O'Keefe said. "We should get on with it."
According to O'Keefe, incoming freshmen in 2008 have already started applying and are being accepted, meaning 2009 would be the earliest the requirement could be enforced.
"We have to notify the freshmen of 2009, so everyone is fully aware," O'Keefe said. "But if it takes a year to tell everyone, then let's start the clock now."
O'Keefe and Mathews said the residency requirement was part of the Flagship Agenda, specifying retention rates as the main cause.
"Students usually make a decision after their first year to continue at the University or not," O'Keefe said. "If they have a successful first year, they are more likely to become sophomores, thus more likely to graduate. This is a clear retention device."
Retention, in University terms, is the ability to keep students enrolled from year to year, which also affects graduation rates.
According to Doris Collins, associate vice chancellor for student auxiliary services, on-campus retention from freshman to sophomore year is approximately 85 percent compared to off-campus at 79 percent.
Mathews said retention needs to be at least 90 percent in order to compare with Southern peers such as the Universities of Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama.
"Even though we're aiming toward only about seven percent higher, that is actually about three to four hundred more students graduating," Mathews said. O'Keefe said he was aware of general student displeasure with the impending policy.
"I understand Student Government voted against it, but it doesn't apply to anyone that's here now," O'Keefe said. "Students were expressing that it was taking away a choice. We're not suspending free choice. This is a strong encouragement to live in a dorm your first year."
Mathews said freshmen residency requirements are popular among many universities, both private and public.
"This will not be an unusual idea for the freshmen of 2009. If they want to go to Tulane, Southeastern, Louisiana Tech or Southern, they would have to live on campus," Mathews said.
O'Keefe said he lived on campus during his freshman year at Loyola University in New Orleans.
"I thought it was a good experience," O'Keefe said. "It cuts down on the number of decisions you have to make such as utilities, apartments, cars and roommates. You get to ease into those in a residence hall."
The Advocate reported O'Keefe said students who "emphatically complain" could be exempt. O'Keefe denied the statement to The Daily Reveille yesterday and said students with ample reason to live off campus will not be forced into the dorms.
The University had a residency requirement in the 1970s, O'Keefe said, but it was removed because there were not enough dorm rooms.
Collins said the housing projections for 2009 show room for 70 percent of freshmen to live in the dorms, which includes the current housing renovations.
Mathews said approximately 70 percent of freshmen are anticipated to live in the dorms because of exemptions to the requirement. Exemptions include being a part-time student, being married, having dependent children, being 21 and living in the area with a parent.
Meal plan requirements and dorm costs are still being discussed.
--- Contact Holly Phillips at hphillips@lsureveille.com
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