Next year, Otterbein will require all juniors to live on campus, which will rob them of key life experiences.
With the new policy that students must live on campus until their senior year, Otterbein is delaying the education of their students.
Not what they learn in the classroom, but what they learn by living on their own outside of the dorm womb. When students live in the dorms, they are living on their own in a sense, but so many different things are taken care of that they don't really learn how to live on their own.
Having freshmen or sophomores living in the dorms is by far the smartest thing to do. It makes sense that it's mandatory.
Moving out of their house and living alone at 18 can be daunting, so it only makes sense to take smaller steps to living on their own.
However, once students hit their junior year, they are usually mature enough to begin living on their own.
By forcing juniors to live on campus so Otterbein can fill up the dorms, the college is robbing students of both a learning experience and a fun time.
Living off campus can be fun. Whether it's in an apartment or in a house, you start to learn a lot more about yourself and others when you move out of the dormitories.
Living in the dorms is certainly easier, and it does have some advantages over living off campus. You don't have to worry about paying for utilities, you have all your meals taken care of, and you can usually find friends in the rooms around you.
However, you don't get a sense of your own space. You certainly don't learn anything about living on your own. No bills, no cooking, and you don't have too much to keep clean.
Living off campus can be a serious challenge for some people, but at the same time, it's probably going to be your best memories of college, provided you don't completely hate your roommates.
The first year I lived off campus, I was in a house on Knox Street with four of my friends, and a fifth friend who slept on the couch. It was crowded, loud, there were piles of dirty dishes everywhere, and it was by far the best time I ever had at Otterbein.
It wasn't easy to live there. Having to worry about utilities was a problem during the winter.
We kept the house at a frigid temperature but our heating bill was still astronomical, but I learned more about living away from home in that year than I did in all the time I lived in the dorms.
It certainly won't be all bad for the juniors, some will get lucky enough to live in the Commons apartments, which are similar to living off campus but with some of the nicer features of the dorms.
A lot of juniors will get stuck living in the residence halls, and they will be delaying their knowledge of how to live off campus, just so Otterbein can fill up all the dorms they built. t&c;
PETER BEHR IS A SENIOR JOURNALISM MAJOR AND IS THE ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR FOR THE t&c.;
