I have only lived on-campus for one semester. I quickly moved off-campus and am now living in my second shared house, in which I live with other students from Hamline. I pay a few hundred a month for rent, and then a few hundred more for utilities and Internet. By the end of the school year, my total cost of living will have totaled out to about four or five thousand; about the same amount that it would cost for living nine months on campus.

When I was living on campus, I lived on the fourth floor of Schilling; it was always a mission to get from my dorm, to anywhere. I was constantly doing things with my time to specifically avoid having to go up that long, terrible flight of stairs. That was on the better side of my experience living in the dorms, however. Personally, when I lived there, I felt pressured to participate in group activities every weekend and before every holiday and test season. I always found papers taped to my door or having been slid underneath, asking me to go to yet another floor wide or Anderson event. It is not like I did not enjoy the people on my floor, or doing things with them, it is just that it was all the time. It felt like another obligation in my life; I even lost a friend due to living in the dorms with her as my roommate. We got really close, and then living together made it too stressful to be friends, and she decided to move off campus, only a few months before I did myself.

Some parts about being smothered and stressed like that were good though. I got the chance to be actively engaging with people, and I always knew about something to do, either in the dorm or in Anderson. If I didn’t have homework or work, then I would be able to hang out with my roommate, and she and I would go try new things together that we wouldn’t have normally alone, like knitting or yoga. There were also trips that non-commuters were more privy to than commuters, and I knew because I would see the flyers in my dorm more than anywhere else.

Living in the dorms had its benefits and its enjoyable moments, yes, but there were also really unwanted moments, ones that are not really talked about when pitching on campus living.

When looking online, I first looked at Hamline’s on-campus living sites. There is an entire page, with eleven sub-pages, dedicated to telling students all about living on-campus, and the ins and outs of such. These pages say that living on campus helps you be more successful as a student, and more integrated into the social community. Associate Dean of Students Javier Gutierrez said in an open letter on the Hamline Housing ‘About Us’ page, “You are joining a community that is committed to your success both in the classroom and for life outside of the classroom. Research has shown that students who live on campus do better academically and socially. Our staff and student leaders, information desk employees, residential housing association and hall council leaders, resident advisors, assistant area coordinators, area coordinators, office manager, and director of residential life are here to assist all of our students in their personal development and growth.” It kind of makes me wonder, where is this kind of assistance of commuter students? Where are our school counselors, who are dedicated to our “personal development and growth?” Why don’t commuters get a community that is committed to our success, “both in the classroom and for life outside of the classroom?” Maybe that’s why students who don’t live on campus don’t do as well; maybe it’s the way schools treat commuter students.

When I searched ‘housing’ in the search bar on the Hamline website, there popped up 3,970 results. When I typed in ‘commute,’ however, there was a mere 117 instances of the word, and only the first three results are actually relevant to commuter students. The fourth result is the site for ‘Housing at Hamline.’ The only two pages of the site that are for commuter students are for the commuter lounge, and the commuter connections – which are actually the same thing. What I get from all of this, is that Hamline does not really have a community for commuters. We do not get the same level of smothering of information about the goings on of campus that the people who live on campus get. We also do not get the same kind of social treatment, for whatever reason. My friend who also moved off campus last year lost all of his friends, which I assume is all because he isn’t living in the dorms with them. People don’t see our faces outside of class, so people assume that we don’t want to be a part of the Hamline community. I assure you all, it is more so the opposite. I live off campus because it makes it easier for me to cut expenses and lower my personal cost of living. It isn’t because I don’t want to be a part of the Hamline community – I very much do, but living off campus has made me realize that being socially welcomed and academically supported here, is more difficult than I had originally anticipated.