A college in New York is evicting campus residents with little warning if their GPA falls below the 2.0 required for good academic standing. A student received a letter over Christmas break and when she arrived to clear out her room, her ID card had been deactivated. Forget the probation note from the provost, these students are forced to pack up and move out. Academic integrity and quality are superbly important, but Old Westbury may be going too far.
First of all, having married a Residence Life professional, I am keenly sensitive to the word “dormitory.” My understanding is that the dorm is the bricks-and-mortar building; whereas, the term “residence hall” applies to a living-learning community. So, when the Old Westbury spokesman says “dorm living is a privilege,” I wonder if he is referring to having a roof over one’s head, or the interpersonal connections made with roommates, or the holistic growth of working with others on activities, or a number of “privileges” that accompany campus life. If the final student’s quote in the article is any indication, then he really does mean “dorm” in it purest sense.
I do not mean to suggest that students on academic probation should enjoy the luxuries of campus life; however, I do not think winter break is the time to boot people to the curb–especially not first-year students. In addition, this article suggests that factors like socioeconomic status may be playing a role in the matter. It seems kicking students out of their on-campus homes and sending them back to dangerous or depressed neighborhoods is meant to motivate them to bring up their grades. As the article indicates, some students have already dropped of college altogether as a result of their eviction.
-Teresa Bagamery Clark
I’ve seen this from an entirely different perspective… We had a university apartment above some partier on academic probation. He played some stupid song FULL BLAST over and over and over and over. Good luck getting anything done about it. I was glad when he finally flunked out and got kicked out entirely.
Really, a 2.0 would be hard NOT to get. You’d have to really work at flunking out that badly. It would take quite a bit of effort… or… not showing up for any classes whatsoever, perhaps.
The 2.0 policy should be actually be revamped and raised to a 2.7(B-)requirement in order to stay in the dorms. College is supposed to be about growing as a person and discovering what you would like to achieve in life. It is a four year window of opportunity that is supposed to help prepare you for life in the real world. If a student cannot maintain a 2.o then there is a problem. At this point, they need to re-evaluate what is important to them and make the necessary changes in order to become a good student and hopefully make a positive contribution to society. I graduated from the school with a 3.65 and I appreciated the fact that a room actually saved me money on travel expenses that I would have accrued had I not been on campus. School should be taken seriously and I hope these students learned a valuable lesson about the cost of taking opportunities for learning for granted. Politics has nothing to do with whether you incorporate good study habits. Students should respect the fact that the majority of things in life have to be earned, even dorm rooms.