Slippery Rock University will see more sophomores on campus starting in 2023.

The university announced Tuesday that beginning in the fall 2023 semester, first-year full-time students will be required to live in campus housing and purchase a meal plan for their freshman and sophomore years. The current policy requires this only of freshmen.

Dave Wilmes, chief student affairs officer at SRU, said students younger than 21 who plan to commute from their parent or guardian’s residence still will be able to fill out a form to continue commuting. The new policy encourages sophomores to continue living on campus, rather than moving into a nearby apartment.

“Data shows it does increase students’ retention and completion of their degree; they are more likely to complete their degree,” Wilmes said. “If you are a freshman or sophomore, we are saying it's important to have that on-campus environment.”

According to Wilmes, the cost of housing and the student meal plan is estimated at $10,500 per year. Over the past five years, an average of 860 sophomores have lived on campus. Wilmes said administrators estimate that following the policy change, about 1,200 sophomores will live on campus.

“With what we found of our housing price, it has remained very stable in recent years, and we anticipate it will remain stable,” Wilmes said. “Food price is a little different, because like everything else, prices have gone up. This decision is not going to have an impact on how we calculate the meal prices.”

There is enough on-campus housing to accommodate the increase in sophomores, in part because fewer juniors and seniors live in university housing. About 190 juniors and seniors lived on campus last school year, and Wilmes said that number probably will drop in 2023.

He said this policy encourages students to find new living situations once they reach their junior year.

“Our numbers of who is housed on campus is not really changing, what is changing is the makeup of who is on campus,” Wilmes said. “Basically there will be less room for juniors and seniors to live on campus. Most choose to move off, so what we are saying is this is a good time to move.”

SRU is part of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, which encompasses 13 campuses across the state. Several of the other PASSHE schools have the two-year campus live-in requirement, and Wilmes said his department expects that most students will be agreeable with the change in policy.

“Many other universities have been doing this and they too have seen that when a student lives on campus, they are more likely to stay in school, get better grades and experience less stress than students who live off campus,” he said.