Ithaca College prides itself on being a residential college. However, this translates to students being required to live on campus for at least three years before moving off campus. While in an ideal world, this may result in fostering community, the realities of on-campus housing are less than ideal.

For many students living in dorms, the cost does not match the quality of buildings. Some resident halls are over 50 years old, with lower quads opening in 1963, while Towers and Terraces were built in 1965. The age of these buildings may not necessarily indicate poor conditions, but the countless complaints about the conditions of resident halls certainly do. Students have voiced concerns about bathrooms, rodents and overall, poor infrastructure in resident halls. Most recently, there have been issues with laundry. Washing machines and dryers have overheated in residence halls, with clothes even catching fire in a dryer in Holmes Hall. For a standard two-person dorm room, these issues are accompanied by a $9,160 price tag per year. This quality compared to the cost of these halls is astounding, especially considering that students have no choice but to subject themselves to these conditions for at least three years.

For upperclassmen, Gardens and Circles are the closest many students can get to off-campus living. These apartments are somewhat newer, with Gardens opening in 1971 and Circles being adopted by the college in 2001. However, the limited availability of these apartments means many upperclassmen are still living in standard resident halls up through their junior year of college, preventing students from experiencing life skills like cooking for themselves and taking care of an apartment. Furthermore, the cost of these apartments are high — a single-bed in Circles costs $13,279 per year and a bed in Gardens costs $11,153 per year. While the Ithaca housing market is certainly not cost-friendly, finding off-campus housing allows students to tailor their search based on their own budgets and can result in other ways to cut costs, like getting rid of the $7,800 residential meal plan. The college should not use the argument that they are protecting students from the housing market if they themselves are providing insufficient housing at unreasonably high rates. 

It could be argued that living on-campus is a quintessential part of the college experience. On-campus housing allows for easy access to resources and lends itself to a closer residential community. However, living on campus all four years in old buildings with poor infrastructure is a different story. The college should listen to students’ complaints about residential life and work to both bolster infrastructure and find ways for students to experience off-campus living.