UNM REQUIRING FRESHMEN HOUSING
TALENT: AML
4-18-18
LUTTRELL: This is Alison Luttrell, reporting for U-N-M-F-M.
The University of New Mexico campus will be home to all incoming freshmen, Fall 2018.
UNM will be instituting a new freshman housing requirement.
Freshmen residing outside the 30-mile radius of campus will be required to live on campus.
After two years of preparing, UNM has made accommodations for the influx of three-hundred students.
SOUND BITE: Students mingling in SUB
TIME: 5s
LUTTRELL: U-N-M officials claim that academic success is the main reason for this decision.
Director of Residence Life and Student Housing, Wayne Sullivan, discusses the reason behind UNM’s decision to institute required freshman housing.
SULLIVAN: “A freshman residency requirement has had national statistics in showing student success and that is something we should consider. And so several vice presidents came together with the proposal. They did the study. They reviewed the fall of 2015 freshman class and came forward in 2016 with the proposal. And then the board of regents approved it and will begin this year.”
LUTTRELL: Sullivan says the potential profit is not something the University a considered in making this decision.
SULLIVAN: “U-N-M Housing is only looking at maybe an extra hundred students living with us, which is not, considering the scope of the 2,000 students we already house is not really a big financial change there.”
LUTTRELL: U-N-M F-M speaks to students on their perspective of the new requirement. Student, Pablo Lasso, talks about living on campus.
LASSO: “I decided to live on campus because I lived really far away from the university. Scholarships allowed me to live on campus in a sense. I paid for living on campus with my job and my meal plan was covered by scholarships. I had a really easy time meeting people because I was always around them.”
LUTTRELL: Lasso also states why he decided to move off campus.
LASSO: “Even though I was able to pay for it, it was really expensive. I paid around five hundred dollars a month, that came out to $5000 for the whole year. Plus another $4000 for the full years meal plan, so that’s $9000.”
LUTTRELL: Pablo Lasso says, having students live on campus in their first year will be positive, but states they can get involved regardless of their housing situation.
LASSO: “The best thing about that is freshmen are going to be able to have an experience in college, networking, having fun with people that they know and it can make it a lot easier to join organizations and groups. However, if one can make that effort without living on campus, a lot of economic barriers, especially with the lottery going down can make it really hard for students to pay for that. And if there's an easy way to justify not living on campus that would be appropriate also if it's going to be a requirement for students to live on campus then there needs to be a lot more financial aid for them to be able to do so.”
LUTTRELL: For UNM-FM, this is Alison Luttrell.
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