"The people who move off campus junior year have really good reasons," University of Notre Dame senior Claire Gaffney said Wednesday, commenting on a new policy that will require future undergraduates to live on campus for at least six semesters. She's shown here doing homework in the Hammes Notre Dame Bookstore. Tribune Photo/ROBERT FRANKLIN
SOUTH BEND — Starting next fall, all newly enrolling University of Notre Dame undergraduates will be required to live on campus during their freshman, sophomore and junior years.
The new six-semester on-campus housing requirement was announced to students on Tuesday.
The policy is designed to strengthen the university's residential nature, and will include incentives to encourage seniors to live on campus, too, according to university officials.
Of Notre Dame's undergraduate study body of approximately 8,500 students, about 63 percent of seniors, 15 percent of juniors and 2 percent of sophomores currently live off campus, according to university data. Freshmen, unless they are living locally with a parent or guardian, are required to live on campus.
The new policy is drawing mixed reviews from current students, who won't be affected. It will be enforced beginning with the fall 2018 entering class.
"The people who move off campus junior year have really good reasons," said Notre Dame senior Claire Gaffney, who moved off campus this year to an apartment east of campus. After studying abroad last year, she wanted to continue the independence she felt while studying in England. "I loved living in the dorm, but most of the seniors I'm friends with live off campus," she said.
"Financially, it's a lot cheaper than living on campus," said Notre Dame senior Daniel Munoz, who lives in a South Bend house with four other students. "I would have stayed on campus for three years anyhow, but a lot of people would like the option of moving off." The new policy seems a little out of touch with student views, he said.
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