To stay or not to stay? That is the question mulled over by thousands of MSU students deciding where to live next year. According to University Housing, about 30 percent of students entering their junior year choose to stay on campus, while more than 60 percent of those entering sophomore and senior years in the residence halls stick around.
This presents a problem for University Housing: how to keep students living in the dorms. In addition to amending cafeteria menus and remodeling old halls, the department runs an advertising campaign called "Live On." So far this year, the department has spent more than $58,000 on materials, advertisements and giveaways.
Associate Director of University Housing Fred Kayne said 15,000 students are projected to live in the dorms for the coming academic year. The numbers are dependent on how many freshmen and transfer students are admitted, he said. Residence hall populations fluctuate throughout the year, as students leave MSU due to graduation, study abroad or other reasons.
University Housing Director Angela Brown said the university always is looking at ways to keep students on campus. Although numbers generally stay the same, Brown said she feels students need some encouragement to stay in residence halls.
And the housing staff does just that.
The university sends out postcards encouraging students to "Live On," buys newspaper ads and sponsors giveaways for students who return to the residence halls. Tony Frewen, assistant director for Housing and Food Services marketing communications, said the ads are an important factor in students' choices.
"Our goal is always to tell students the advantage and convenience of living on campus," Brown said.
And while many students rally behind the dorms and their convenience, others maintain a list of complaints, including community bathrooms, checking in after midnight and cafeteria food.
Ugly need not apply
On the third floor of Landon Hall, four women hang out in a dorm room before going to dinner and aerobics class. They've decorated the room by writing in dry-erase marker on the walls. One message faces the door, serving as a warning to those who might enter: "This room is for sexy bitches only!"
Theresa Straubel lives down the hall. She's "down here only for the Tetris game" on a friend's computer, she said.
The premedicine freshman said the cafeterias are a plus for students living on campus.
"Landon's cafeteria is great," Straubel said, adding that it offers a wide variety of options.
But Straubel lamented about having to eat dinner earlier than she's used to.
"You can't go around 10," she said.
Most of MSU's 15 cafeterias close at 7 p.m., but some don't close their doors until 8 p.m.
This issue of changing cafeteria hours is something Bruce Haskell, residence halls food service coordinator, is examining, though money is an issue.
As an alternative to eating in the cafeterias, many students opt to get a room in Williams Hall. The hall features kitchenettes, two on each floor, complete with a few stoves, a microwave, a table, chairs and sometimes a can opener. Students can come in and cook their own meals or keep a meal plan and use the kitchens, as no-preference freshman Mary Gagstetter does.
"We just use it to make cookies," she said of herself and her roommate, kinesiology freshman Emily VanGessel.
Just the 16 of us
While some students prefer the community living of the dorms and others want the freedom and self-reliance that comes with off-campus housing, education junior Andrew Reimann enjoys the best of both worlds.
Reimann is the vice president of recruitment for Delta Upsilon. The four-story house on M.A.C. Avenue has 16 bedrooms and four bathrooms. Reimann moved in the second half of his sophomore year after pledging the previous fall.
"This particular house is convenient because it's so close to campus," he said. Reimann also said he enjoys having his own room and doesn't mind making his own meals.
Reimann pays about $300 a month to live in the fraternity, but he also is afforded an asset held in high esteem by almost every member of the MSU community: free parking. And it's close - the lot is right behind his house.
Housing Director Brown said parking is always an issue with students living on campus. While MSU has created a number of new areas for parking and the university is in the planning stages for a new ramp near Olin Health Center, Brown said students aren't the only ones in need of a place for their cars.
"It's difficult for employees. We just don't have the luxury" of ample parking, she said.
Department of Police and Public Safety employee Lynnette Forman said the department sells about 9,200 parking permits for the lots in which on-campus students can park.
Brown stressed, however, that MSU isn't alone in its plight.
"There isn't a campus in this United States that doesn't have a parking problem," she said.
Humble abode?
On the 300 block of Division Street, there's a house whose door has been painted brown to match the roofing. From the inside, duct tape covers what would be a gaping hole where the knob used to be. An answer comes with a knock at the door. Matt Yono disengages the deadbolt and pulls its latch to open the door.
"Yeah, it's broken," the physiology junior says. "This house is a piece of crap."
Once inside the home, however, it's easy to forget about the missing handle when sitting in front of the 60-inch television.
Yono lives with three other men in the ranch-style house with an unattached garage. He moved off campus as a sophomore to get a space he could call his own.
"I didn't like not having my own place," he said. "I like that the rooms are bigger, and there's a communal space."
Rent for the house is about $2,000 per month between the four men, a price Yono considers average for off-campus living.
"It's expensive, but it's college. You can't do anything about it," he said.
Yono and his roommates rent from SRP Management, 1037 E. Grand River Ave. Rental agent Leisa Dierdorf said rent is based on a number of different things.
"One of the most expensive things is insuring a multi-adult household," she said, adding that the insurance payments could exceed the mortgage on the house itself.
John Merton of Financial Services Center Inc. said insuring a student household can cost a landlord or rental company as much as $1,000 per year, which is about 50 percent more than a single-family home. Such a policy doesn't include insurance for the tenants of the house and their belongings; Merton said this can cost students another $200.
Cost is one factor the university urges students to consider about housing. Students in residence halls don't pay for utilities such as electricity, heat, cable and Internet. But some students living off campus say they save money by leaving the residence halls.
For example, if an off-campus student pays $500 in rent, $75 for utilities and $100 for food per month for a four-month period, the total cost comes to $2,700 per semester. A 20- or 15-meal plan coupled with a double room would cost a student $2,636, according to the MSU Controller's Web site - $64 less than living off campus.
But if a student with the same meal plan chooses to live in a single room, he or she would pay $836 more than the student living off campus.
Making the grade
Living on the 500 block of Ann Street are six women who fled off campus for independence.
"Our main prerogative for living off campus was to have more freedom - we didn't want the rules of the dorms," dietetics senior Lynn Polmanteer said.
One of those roommates, audiology and speech sciences senior Anne Westmeier, said living off campus prepares a student for the real world.
Westmeier moved to her current residence as a junior, at which point she was more than ready to leave the dorms.
"Two years in the dorms is quite enough," she said.
But Paul Goldblatt, director of the Department of Residence Life, said students who leave the residence halls often compromise their grades.
According to statistics gathered by the department, students who live on campus earn a 3.075 grade-point average, while the average for those students off campus is a 2.878 GPA.
But studying isn't usually a problem for the six women.
"Everyone has a good work ethic. Every night from about 7 p.m. to midnight, there's someone at Espresso Royale, so there's always someone to study with," Polmanteer said.
Polmanteer said she feels the GPA discrepancy is a product of a student's environment, saying dorm life offers fewer distractions than living off campus.
"You're choosing to live in a neighborhood and be more interactive with your neighbors," she said.
Joseph Clark can be reached at clarkjo6@msu.edu.
