Earlier today, I was forwarded an email that STRONGLY suggested that no more seniors will be able to live off campus moving forward. I’m deeply concerned by this move to block off-campus housing and forcing us all on meal plans for our entire stay here. I know I’m not the only one who sees this as a bold-faced attempt at controlling the lives of the students of Dickinson College and as a shameless money grab. This move is going to restrict the freedoms of our student body and rob us of thousands of dollars at a school that is already astronomically expensive.

This is part of a larger trend of the school dictating to us how to live our lives. Where we can go. What we can eat. And how much it’s gonna cost. We’re left with no freedom but to transfer.

I blame our worsened standings in the rankings and slipping admissions rates in part on this school’s intolerance of personal choice and I foresee this move hurting our retention and admissions rates.

Nobody wants to live in a dorm their senior year of college. And I find the claim that these suite-style dorms will foster a stronger sense of community dubious. I’ve talked to friends who live in suite-style housing in Witwer, Morgan, and McKenney Halls, and they’ve all said that they only talk to their friends in their suite, or people with whom they were already friends previously. They don’t connect with people on their floor. Besides, seniors aren’t, no matter where you put them, going to drastically change their group of friends based off who’s on their floor.

Furthermore, I find the timing of this announcement suspicious, and indicative of a larger problem with a lack of transparency. This was, to my knowledge, announced only to the rising seniors; who are mostly abroad, and while all of us are in the midst of two of the biggest holidays of the year, course selections, and right before finals. It feels like a slap to the face, honestly, like this was intentionally sprung on and hidden from us.

I hold a deep pride in this school. And it’s because of that reason I call on this school’s administration to stand down. Allow us to move off campus. Allow us to get off meal plans and cook our own food. Allow us to get a taste of the real world before we graduate and jump head first into it. Allow us to grow deeper bonds with the town of Carlisle. If we stay on this course, I fear that our ranking will fall, our endowment will worsen, and retention rates will suffer. Because of this, I cannot stand idly by. I say NO. I implore the Senate to stand up to this and say NO. And I call on the student body to stand up and say NO.