Sadie Wise believes when a per­son reaches age 18, they reach adulthood.

Wise, a fresh­man in com­mu­ni­ca­tions, is frus­trated that she is not able to live in the on-campus apart­ments at the age of 18.

“You go off to col­lege to be inde­pen­dent,” said Wise.

She requested to live with her older brother in the cam­pus apart­ments, but was denied.

Jon Shaffer, direc­tor of hous­ing, said, “If a fam­ily is liv­ing in the uni­ver­sity apart­ments and has a stu­dent attend­ing Ferris, the Ferris student’s home address would be the apartments.”

Shaffer said the stu­dent could live there instead of in the halls if it were the student’s per­ma­nent address.

“If how­ever, a stu­dent who is not yet 20 has a sib­ling in the apart­ments, the younger sib­ling is not eli­gi­ble to live in the apart­ments, as this would not be the per­ma­nent home of the par­ent,” said Shaffer.

Ferris’ Office of Housing pol­icy states that a stu­dent can­not live in an on-campus apart­ment unless they are 20 by the first day of classes.

The pol­icy states that the hous­ing office has to com­ply with the rules imple­mented by the Board of Trustees. In one of the policy’s sec­tions it says, “Except as oth­er­wise pro­vided in this sub­part, all sin­gle men and women stu­dents under the age of 20 liv­ing away from home are required to live in uni­ver­sity res­i­dence halls if space is available.”

Another sec­tion of the pol­icy states, “Permission may be given by uni­ver­sity author­i­ties for cer­tain stu­dents, or groups of stu­dents, to live in off-campus res­i­dences under con­di­tions which do not inter­fere with the proper oper­a­tion of the university’s res­i­den­tial program.”

“The key to under­stand­ing the pol­icy is that stu­dents are either liv­ing in the res­i­dence halls or in the home of their par­ent. Living with any other rel­a­tive, at a cabin or vaca­tion prop­erty, for exam­ple, is not within the scope or spirit of the pol­icy,” said Shaffer.

Katelyn Crain, a fresh­man in pre-pharmacy, also feels the pol­icy is not fair and said, “I think that a stu­dent should be able to live wher­ever they want to live after the first year of liv­ing on cam­pus,” said Crain.

Although Wise said she was not pleased with the pol­icy, she also said, “Your first year liv­ing on cam­pus is a good expe­ri­ence because you get to know the area, but by your sec­ond year you should be able to [live off campus].”

Crain said whether it is the on-campus/off-campus apart­ments or a town home, all stu­dents should have a choice regard­less of their age.

“Personally, I think the pol­icy that stu­dents must live on cam­pus until they are 20 is unrea­son­able,” said Crain.

Wise said it would be more ben­e­fi­cial for her to live off cam­pus as she doesn’t use her meal plan much and is wast­ing money pay­ing for it. She also said she feels it is cheaper to live off campus.

“Basically, I think you should be able to live on your own,” said Wise. n