On Tuesday, Dec. 9., Macalester Dean of Students Javier Gutierrez announced that, beginning with the Class of 2030, students will be required to live on campus for three years, up from the current two-year requirement. Gutierrez also noted that the residency requirement will come with an equivalent guarantee of on-campus housing.
“This change supports student success by fostering stronger connections, academic achievement and a vibrant residential learning community,” Gutierrez wrote in the Mac Daily announcement.
Associate Provost Paul Overvoorde explained that the increase in the residency requirement comes as part of the “Imagine, Macalester” strategic plan, the college’s long-term institutional improvement plan.
“It’s been a collective priority for the strategic plan to think about what the residence hall does [and] how we communicate the benefits on the student success side of things,” Overvoorde said.
Overvoorde emphasized that the longer residency requirement was implemented to prioritize the student experience on campus.
“[We considered] primarily benefits to students and student success,” Overvoorde said. “The opportunity to build additional curricula [and] the increased cost of housing and the tightening of the market in the Twin Cities [make the student body] a big benefactor here.”
Gutierrez also pointed out that on-campus housing can insulate the student body from the risks that come with the housing market.
“What I’ve noticed in the Facebook groups and some other neighborhood pages is … a lot of the neighbors are really getting frustrated with these bigger companies buying homes and then renting them out,” Gutierrez said. “It’s different if … a family owns this home, and has owned it, and wants to rent it out to someone.”
“Do [landlords] really care about the neighborhood [or do] they just want to make money off of [them] and don’t care about who’s in the neighborhood?” Gutierrez continued.
Laura Williams, executive director of the Macalester Groveland Community Council, shared concerns about the leasing stock in the neighborhood. With fewer students able to look off-campus for housing, Williams hopes that the housing market will be better for those searching for a home.
“The decision may open up more housing stock for non-students to live within the neighborhood,” Williams wrote in an email to The Mac Weekly. “We have a shortage of housing, so any development [opening up] more housing does provide a benefit to assist more people to live in Mac[-]Grove[land] with greater density.”
“We appreciate Macalester housing students and we welcome students being part of our residential communities within Mac[-] Grove[land],” Williams continued.
Central to the residency requirement increase is the construction of a new residence hall at the corner of Macalester Street and Grand Avenue. Overvoorde notes that the new dormitory will foreground a more unique experience for those who opt to live there.
“[We will offer] the availability of a residence hall that has a different kind of layout than other ones,” Overvoorde said. “It has a pod-style living opportunity [for a] more apartment-type feel to it [and] the opportunity to not have the meal plan be something that’s required.”
Gutierrez described the design of the residence hall, clarifying that the “pod-style” dormitory would resemble a modified George Draper Dayton Hall but also emphasizing several differences.
“They’re pod-style in that there [are] clusters of students living in a smaller wing together … [and] bathrooms dedicated just for the group of however many students [are] in that area,” Gutierrez said.
Gutierrez also detailed plans for shared kitchen spaces, expanded from the smaller kitchenette-style spaces in other residence halls.
“[It will be] differentiated from all the current halls, more towards what juniors and seniors might want,” Gutierrez said.
The new residence hall forms part of a broader “welcome center,” that will be established at the crossroads of Grand Ave. and Macalester St., which Overvoorde detailed as keeping both Macalester and the broader community in mind.
“The design of the building and all of these other changes are [made] with an awareness that we live inside of this urban environment and [consideration toward] how we blend and interact with that,” Overvoorde said. “We don’t have a gate that surrounds all of campus to define where the boundary of campus is, and so that porousness is one of the things that I think is special about Mac.”
Williams agreed, noting the special relationship that exists between Macalester and the broader community.
“We are grateful for the college and the student body that is part of our amazing neighborhood,” Williams said.
Among the benefits of the residency requirement, Gutierrez explained that, while not fundamentally altering the student body’s relationship with drugs and alcohol, another required year on campus could keep support networks closer to the students who need the support.
“If students want to do drugs or drink, they’re going to,” Gutierrez said. “But we do have staff that can help make sure those policies are being supported and enforced, [and] it allows a greater way for the Scots Care team to do outreach.”
Beyond the student body’s relationship with substances, Gutierrez expects the decision to more broadly create a stronger sense of community on campus.
“The more students you get on campus, the more life comes onto campus,” Gutierrez said. “You just have more people on campus, so hopefully your student body [and] your student life is more active.”
The plan to keep students on campus an additional year comes with costs for both students and the college. Overvoorde stresses the decision was made deliberately after much consideration.
“[It’s] built into the budget modeling of what the financial investment is,” Overvoorde said. “It’s all been reviewed by [Vice President for Administration and Finance] Patricia [Langer] as well as the Board of Trustees … because it’s such a big financial undertaking.”
While a major financial burden for the college itself, the residency requirement will also increase the housing price for students. Gutierrez emphasized that the college will match its support to added costs through the financial aid system.
“We need to ensure that we’re factoring in that students are gonna be on campus longer … [and] financial aid needs to meet those expectations as well,” Gutierrez said. “A goal is always not to put the burden on the students financially.”
Compared to Macalester’s peer group of other similarly-sized liberal arts colleges, Gutierrez also noted that Mac’s residency requirement is currently considerably lower than most.
“For the conferences or work groups that I’ve been to that involve smaller private colleges, many of them have been surprised that we don’t have a four-year residency,” Gutierrez said. “Because they do, regardless of where their setting is.”
Matthew Dresdner ’30, an incoming first-year and a member of the first class to be affected by the change, noted that while housing didn’t seriously affect his decision to commit to Macalester, his experience has shown that most colleges have a similar residency requirement.
“[M]ost colleges have the mandatory two years on campus, so I thought [the current requirement] was pretty normal,” Dresdner wrote in a message to The Mac Weekly.
Dresdner opposes the addition of another mandatory year on campus, describing the decision as “unnecessary.”
“I think people should be able to choose for themselves if they wanna live on or off campus,” Dresdner wrote.
