Warning to students: If you want a college living experience free of mentors, invasive oversight and character judgments, don’t live in University Village.
The third university-owned apartment complex opened this semester for upperclassmen, who found out too late that the pricey “all-inclusive rent” included a little more than they expected.
The university staffed the complex with “university peers,” glorified mentors who do nightly rounds to keep students in check but don’t provide toilet paper or trash bags as the residence halls do.
Basically, they provide residents with all the invasive, sometimes negative aspects of living with a mentor, without the simple perks.
Residence Life resident director Chela Sproles, claims the mentor program was created to keep students from feeling isolated.
But most students who start out as freshmen at MSU are required to live in a residence hall.
After two years of living in East Lansing, college students shouldn’t need a liaison for inter-student relations.
If students truly enjoy the resources provided by the residence halls, they could continue living in the dorms or in one of MSU’s other two apartment complexes, Spartan Village and Cherry Lane Apartments – neither of which have community peers.
So what makes this new apartment complex any different?
Sproles said the purpose of the program is not to police students, but the community peers do rounds twice nightly, at 9 p.m. and 11:30 p.m., and check in on residents.
While some of the students living in University Village haven’t even met a community peer yet or haven’t had a negative experience with one, others know of residents who have gotten in trouble.
Since when did we need hand holding?
Sproles claimed Residence Life isn’t inhibiting people’s freedom with the rounds.
She also said a person’s character is based on what that person does when no one is watching.
Apparently, a community peer is responsible for the moral behavior of college juniors and seniors, connected to that community peer only because they happen to live in a certain apartment building.
Yeah, right.
Students often move off campus and into apartments to taste the freedom of solo living for the first time.
Most students, if not all, would admit their decision to move off campus was to get away from the dorm atmosphere, not to have the university version of Big Brother tapping on their door late on a Friday night, asking them to kindly perform that keg stand a little quieter.
If the decision was up to the juniors and seniors living in the complex, it’s likely Residence Life would find its mentor-like services aren’t very helpful or desired after all.
Be careful, they’re watching you.
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