Many ENC students complain that they are forced to live on campus when it would be more affordable to live off campus. Students should be able to seek more affordable off-campus housing options and not be required to live on-campus all four years of school.
Being a Christian college, ENC has certain standards all students must live by, otherwise known as the Community Covenant, but this doesn’t mean that students should be limited in where they can live.
As a senior I’m looking at how life is going to be once I leave ENC and head into the world. Paying rent, cooking, and cleaning an entire apartment are a few changes I anticipate—and truthfully, I’m not ready for them.
I think ENC prepares its students intellectually for life after graduation, but a lot more will be thrust on us after we leave campus that we aren’t prepared for. One minute we’re being fed and cleaned up after, and the next we’re thrown into the world with no experience in paying rent every month or being completely responsible for ourselves.
Juniors and seniors should be given the opportunity to live off-campus. I think students who have been proven responsible should be able to go through a process in which SDO allows them to live off-campus with the faith that the lifestyle covenant will be followed. SDO-approved juniors and seniors could rent a house or apartment together as long as the covenant was upheld. A senior would be in charge of the house and responsible for telling SDO of any rule breaches at his or her discretion.
This would be a way for students to experience what it’s like living in the real world while still being monitored by ENC. This wouldn’t be for everyone, but it should be an option available to those who have earned it.
We, the ones paying for college, should not be limited in where we can live simply because we’re under a certain age. Some of us are responsible enough to live off-campus. I think it’s time we were allowed those freedoms and not forced to be “stuck on campus.”