Nontraditional students should not be denied housing options

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It is 7 a.m. on a Tuesday morning, and I am sitting at my dining room table checking e-mail and browsing the morning news.

Class starts at 8 a.m. and I have 20 minutes left to get ready, but I have nothing to fear.

I don’t have the stress of locating a parking spot or the need to leave early to be on time. I live in the Washington Apartments in the center of campus.

But this convenience is threatened.

The college is expanding and has been slowly removing the apartments on campus for people like me.

Expanding classrooms and new programs on campus are all part of growth and new buildings for education are not bad or destructive choices.

In my opinion, it’s good the college is expanding and growing, but I caution officials to not forget student housing in this growth.

This is an issue of lifestyles at its heart, and I believe some students want to live on campus and also want to have some of the freedoms that living off campus affords.

Living on campus puts me within walking distance of my classes, labs, and the library. I save hours weekly, hours that could be lost by commuting and searching for parking.

Washington Apartments gives many of us this freedom. Just because I am not the traditional student demographic of this university does not mean I do not want to live on campus.

No one bothers to think that some people are leaving past careers and lives and starting fresh. The transition to head back to college at an older age and making the choice to move changes everything. It can be scary.

Homes are lost and some people need on-campus housing as a replacement for previous living accommodations. The idea of denying someone the opportunity to live on campus because of age is disturbing.

Students of non-traditional ages, 25 and older, have become the white elephants on campus. It would be strange for some to see older students walking in and out of resident halls they call home.

That is why CMU must keep affordable single student/family housing on campus. Granted, Residence Life does offer two other apartments complexes for students in my shoes, but the decentralized locations of Kewadin Village and Northwest Apartments did not work for me.

All I am asking for is that the CMU administration and Board of Trustees, who want to expand the campus, include Residence Life in your planning.

Give us nontraditional students the same options as traditional students — a place to live on campus.