UALR to require fall 2013 freshmen to live on campus

University of Arkansas at Little Rock freshman dorm residents Woody Bellairs (left) of Cabot and Alex Harbison of Hardy hang out outside the Trojan Grill near West Hall on the Little Rock campus Monday afternoon.
University of Arkansas at Little Rock freshman dorm residents Woody Bellairs (left) of Cabot and Alex Harbison of Hardy hang out outside the Trojan Grill near West Hall on the Little Rock campus Monday afternoon.

— The University of Arkansas at Little Rock will require first time freshmen to live on campus starting in fall 2013, a shift in approach for a campus that has predominantly attracted nontraditional and commuter students.

The new policy, which has some exemptions, is designed to improve retention and graduation rates for students who are fresh out of high school, Chancellor Joel E. Anderson said.

“We’re still going to be serving thousands of commuting students, but, at the same time, we’re strengthening the traditional component of the campus,” he said. “Students who live on campus have an advantage in terms of persisting in school.”

The shift comes as campuses around the state tweak policies and adopt programs to increase academic success as the state gradually implements a new higher-education funding formula that places less emphasis on raw enrollment and greater weight on how many students persist to graduation.

At some campuses, those new efforts include “first-year experience” programs that place new students in small learning groups or special residence halls to encourage good study habits.

Three Arkansas public universities require most first-time freshmen to live on campus: the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, the University of Central Arkansas in Conway and Arkansas State University in Jonesboro. Others encourage on-campus living but stop short of requiring it.

All three cite national research that connects living on campus with classroom success for young students.

A study published in 2011 by a University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher found that students who live on campus as freshmen are about 3 percent more likely to remain enrolled for their sophomore year than their peers who live elsewhere. Studies attribute the correlation in part to residential students building a greater connection to campus activities and fellow students.

Such research has bolstered efforts of so-called commuter and metropolitan campuses to increase campus residency.

Retention and graduation improvements “are things that we are under pressure to achieve these days,” Anderson said, citing the new “performance funding” formula that could result in a net loss of state appropriations if the university can’t meet metrics of success in a list of areas.

UALR’s graduation rates are among the lowest in the state. Leaders attribute that to a higher-than-typical enrollment of older working students who enroll in fewer classes and take longer to earn degrees.

An April 2012 report from the Arkansas Department of Higher Education showed that 21.9 percent of UALR students who enrolled in the fall 2005 semester had graduated six years later, compared with 39.3 percent at all of the state’s universities and 58.1 percent at UA-Fayetteville, which had the highest graduation rate and a higher proportion of traditional students.

But UALR’s traditional freshmen enrollment is climbing, and more of those students are attending full-time, enrollment data shows.

Of UALR’s 10,374 undergraduate students in the fall 2011 semester, 923 were first time freshmen, according to the university’s institutional research website. Of those students, 871 attended full time and 861 were 21 years old or younger, the website said.

Complete fall 2012 data have not been finalized.

That 9 percent first-time college student enrollment in 2011 compares with an enrollment of about 7 percent first time students in 2006, data showed.

Leaders do not expect the new housing policy to displace current residential students. And the policy is not a response to excessive vacancies in campus residence halls, they said.

The rule, approved as part of UALR’s strategic plan, requires all first-time, full-time freshman to live on campus with exceptions for some students, including: those who are 21-years-old or older, those who are married, parents, students at satellite campuses and individuals with “mitigating circumstances.”

Those circumstances could include the desire to live at home with parents, said Logan Hampton, associate vice chancellor for student development and dean of students.

Institutional research shows that 346 of 923 first-time students in fall 2011 were from Pulaski County and 134 were from Saline County.

Financial need could also be a factor in allowing a freshman to live off campus, Hampton said.

Dorms used for freshmen at UALR currently charge between $1,700 and $2,500 in housing fees per semester with meal plans ranging from about $1,200 to $1,500 per semester.

That’s a price many parents are willing to pay for a residential college experience, Anderson said, saying that the new requirement could serve as a recruiting tool for young students.

“Parents feel much more secure in that first year if their child is living in university housing,” rather than living independently off campus, he said.

Hampton said UALR has about 1,368 spots for on-campus students since it acquired the 420-bed University Village apartment complex in the spring.

Anderson said some of those apartments will open for the first time in fall 2013, in time to take in older students who may have previously lived in residence halls.

About 1,100 students currently live in campus housing, which also includes four dorms, he said. Those include freshman Donaghey Scholars, who are already required to live on campus.

Anderson said he expects UALR’s dorms to be at or near capacity when the new policy kicks in next fall.

“For the foreseeable future, we’ll probably be full,” he said.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 10/02/2012

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