Off-Campus Living

Trinity Digest
by Nicole Collins

Community life at Trinity International University (TIU) is designed intentionally with most students living on campus with specific rules and regulations regarding housing.

“Trinity College believes that residence hall living fosters social and emotional development,” the sentiment can be found on the “Housing at TIU” page on the University’s website www.tiu.edu/college/housing.

All full-time students are required to live on campus unless they live with their parents, are seniors with 30 hours of graduation, have live-in job situations, are 21 years of age or older, or are married.

If a student does not qualify to live off campus, they can submit a written request to the Director of Residence Life to be considered for off-campus approval, according to TIU.

The small private liberal arts college doesn’t provide the “college town feel” that big state colleges can. So when students move off-campus, they are literally moving out of the campus community, where at a state college a student can move out of campus housing but still be entrenched with college life.

Also, the school would lose a significant amount of money if the residential facilities were not being used, and students’ room and board expenses were being transferred to an off-campus entity.

An unwritten concern regarding TIU housing is the accountability factor in reference to the strict Statement of Community Expectations, popularly known by students as “Trinity Expectations.”

TIU has established on-and-off-campus behavioral guidelines for all full-time and part-time students. Dishonesty, theft, abortion, premarital sex, adultery, homosexual behavior, profanity, gossip, pornography are all forbidden. Students are expected to obey all government law, refrain from harmful substances including legal tobacco (18) and alcohol (21), refrain from gambling, and to abide by all extra “procedural rules and regulations as announced,” according to TIU.

The extra rules forbid non-consenting snowball fights and sunbathing on campus property.

TIU Junior and Trinity Hall Residence Assistant Natalie Zierten gave a persuasive speech last semester, attempting to persuade the speech class that living on-campus was better because it was more convenient, students learned how to live in a large community with a variety of people, and students are taught to live morally responsible with the accountability of others.

One obvious problem is that these accommodations Zierten refers to do not prepare students for real life. And living off-campus is not for everyone, just as living on-campus is not for everyone.

Zierten’s speech arguably stems from a negative stigma about off-campus living that is rooted in the TIU Residence Life staff.

Nonetheless, students continue to live off-campus once they meet one of the requirements. About Twenty-five per cent of full-time undergraduate students at TIU live off campus, according to an authority of the TIU Housing Department.

“I claimed that my parents moved to this address,” said an anonymous off-campus resident and junior student who does not meet off-campus house requirements. The student commutes just five minutes from a Deerfield residence with a handful of TIU roommates.

Commuter and Senior Lauren Rosko has never lived on campus and lives at home with her parents in Gurnee and commutes 25-30 minutes to school, “give or take some… give a lot with snow,” said Rosko.

“I live off-campus because it saves a lot of money and I enjoy living at home with my parents and pets,” said Rosko.

Senior Wendy Moore moved off-campus her senior year and lives in a 4-bedroom suburban Buffalo Grove house with five other TIU students. Moore commutes 20 minutes to campus because its cheaper, she doesn’t have to worry about dorm open-house rules, and she doesn’t have to have a Melton meal plan.

“I have a bigger sense of freedom,” said Moore, “when you want to go to bed you can go to bed, you don’t have to deal with annoying people, and the only people at your house are people you want there.”

Moore also believes that living off-campus has taught her to be more responsible with her money, as she manages it to pay bills and go grocery shopping.

“It helps the transition between college and real life, between being in school and not being in school anymore,” said Moore.

Senior Andy Plascencia moved off-campus his senior year and lives in a 2-bedroom apartment in Vernon Hills with three other TIU students. Plascencia commutes 20 minutes for similar reasons as Moore, but mainly because it’s less expensive.

“You learn to survive on your own, cook for yourself and clean for yourself,” said Plascencia.

Senior Dana Larmour moved off-campus her senior year and lives in a 4-bedroom house in Deerfield with 5 other TIU students. Larmour commutes just 5 minutes because after three years of dormitory living she was ready to move out.

“I loved living in the dorms while I did, but as a senior I was ready to live off campus,” said Larmour, “There’s more freedom for sure, which comes with more responsibility.”

TIU has recognized that living off-campus is an appropriate and desired option for Seniors before they graduate and move out anyway.