Daily Deacon

Three Year Policy – Todd

Many students have admitted to forging petitions to be approved to live off campus since 2011 when the Wake Forest University administration passed a policy that forced students to live on campus for three years instead of two.

According to the Wake Forest’s Residential, Life, and Housing website only Seniors, and approved Sophomores and Juniors are allowed to live off campus. To get approval for off campus housing a student has to write an essay explaining why they need to live off campus.

The application for getting off campus has turned out to be a major loop hole in the policy. Many students admitted to lying on the application so that they can live off campus. According to Alana McCarthy, a Senior at Wake Forest, “Everyone does it.”

Students use a variety of creative lies on the application to get off campus. According to

Senior, Harry Perkins, a lot of students say they are allergic to the mold in campus dorm rooms.

Perkins said that a friend of his told the school that she was anemic, and that she needed to live off campus so that she can cook more meat.

Perkins also said that the more “absurd and unusual” the excuse is the more likely that person will get approved.

One student, who wished not to be name, took it as far as telling the school that he was a homosexual and that he did not feel comfortable living in a dorm room with other men. The entire story was a lie, but the student got off campus.

As strange as the process seems, the school actually needs these students to live off campus because since the three year on campus policy came into effect there has been a shortage in living space available on campus.

According to Resident, Life, and Housing, there are 3,710 beds on campus for 4,846 students.

Adam Bernot, the Assistant director of Housing Assignments, admitted that “We have become much more flexible about who we let off campus because we are so close to capacity.”

Drew Duff, a Sophomore Residential Advisor, feels that “The housing policy is just another way for the school to micro manage it’s students.” He went on to say that he thinks the policy is “Just another money scheme.”

The cost of housing on campus is $ 4,248 per semester. A student can find a typical apartment off campus with many more amenities for $ 2,800 per semester.

However, according to Kristy Eanes, the Director of Housing assignments, the school sees that there is a correlation between living on campus and student engagement in the community.

The school says there is no plan to change the policy in any way.