Newly Released Data Shows Residential Hofstra Students Are Leaving Campus
BY: AMUDALAT AJASA AND LEAH CHIAPPINO
As the spring 2021 semester begins, students who have already been forced to adjust to classes and extracurriculars over Zoom are once again being faced with a choice: Move back to a campus in lockdown or stay home, isolated from their friends and college life. As a result, many Hofstra students who left during the March 2020 lockdowns didn’t return to campus.
Assistant Vice President of University Relations Karla Schuster told The Clocktower that the number of students living on campus has always been fluid, calling residential counts a “snapshot in time.” However, the pandemic has exacerbated the situation. Data provided to The Clocktower by the university shows that the residential student population on Feb. 24, 2020 was 2,798 students, which fell by nearly 30% to 1,966 by the beginning of the fall. By Nov. 22 that same year, there were 1,958 residential students. The population decreased again in the spring, but to a lesser degree, bringing the student population on campus to 1,860.
“I had about five students that moved off campus at the end of the fall semester,” one student worker in the Office of Residential Life told The Clocktower. They requested anonymity out of concerns for the security of their employment. “For me, that’s a drastic number. I’ve never had that many residents move out at the end of a semester to go home.”
Students cited uncertainty around the global pandemic, mental health struggles, campus health and safety and financial strain as to why they chose to leave. Alexarose Marcellino, a freshman biology major who chose to stay home this semester after living on campus during the fall semester, is one of many students who moved home due to the cost of on-campus housing.
“I honestly am only home for the money. I loved living on campus, even with the COVID-19 restrictions,” she said. “It was my first [time] being independent and I really enjoyed living with my roommate. I really just want to get my money’s worth.”
Campus dorm fees span from $4,907 for a Suite Triple to $7,994 for a Super Single. The University has increased the number of single living options due to the pandemic, but in doing so it also removed other more affordable housing options, such as a triple or quad unit in one of the high-rise dorms.
Sophomore German and history double major Ryder Lazo also left campus after the fall semester for financial reasons. For the spring, she is living in an off-campus house. “I really love living on campus but it's pretty expensive and I was having issues with the company doing my student loans, so I had to move off-campus in order to stay in New York,” she said.
Lauren Wood, a junior dance education major, shared similar sentiments about the on-campus housing expense. If not for Wood being placed as a residential assistant, she would not have returned to campus in the spring. “Although it’s still school, the pricing for the type of education I was receiving was not going to be worth the cost of living on campus to not get that full college experience,” Wood said.
Since the pandemic, households across the country have faced increased financial hardship. According to a survey by the Healthy Minds Network for Research on Adolescent and Young Adult Mental Health and the American College Health Association, 66% of students report the pandemic has caused them more financial stress. Deteriorating mental health conditions among students have also impacted their decisions to come back to campus. One study by Texas A&M University said 71% of students reported feeling increased stress and anxiety as a result of the pandemic, 86% reported deceased social interaction as a result of social distancing measures, and 82% reported increased worry over academic performance.
For Wood, managing both mental and physical health concerns was a difficult balance. “My big question was: Do I stay home while my mental health deteriorates but my physical health is secure, or do I go back to school where my mental health is better?”
These new tensions also weighed heavily on students like MJ Glover, a junior music education major who came back to campus in the fall and subsequently chose to stay home this spring. They said the restrictions, which include limited lounge usage, increased social distancing and a no-guest policy in the dorms led to isolation. “Home is a better environment for me to exist and learn in since Hofstra became a really negative physical place for me last semester,” they said.
For the spring, many of these social distancing guidelines are still in place. Hofstra also eliminated spring break to deter traveling and congregating, offering several days off scattered throughout the semester instead. These policies are meant to accommodate the students who, in spite of everything, did come back.
Emma Pelletier, a freshman film studies and production major, resided on campus for both the fall 2020 and spring 2021 semesters. “It was nice to be somewhere new and experience new things and meet a few new people,” she said. However, she also noted that the decision did not come easily. “It isn’t the typical or ideal college experience.”
