While freshmen and sophomores are required to live in a dorm, upperclassmen have the option of moving off campus.

Some upperclassman, however, chose to live on campus all four years.

Glasgow senior John Alexander chose to stay on campus because of his friend, Glasgow senior Erin Napier. The two have lived together since their freshman year.

“I really value our friendship and how much fun we have living together,” he said.

The two lived in Minton Hall as freshmen and have lived in Bates-Runner Hall for the past three years.

Alexander enjoyed the community he had in Minton while he was there.

That community became especially evident to Alexander after the “Great Minton Flood” happened while he lived there. The bathroom that caused the flood was next to his and Napier’s room.

“The entire hall pulled together to try to keep everybody’s rooms from getting flooded,” Alexander said.

The one thing he dislikes about living on campus is some of the dorm rules.

“If you have an apartment or a house, your space is a little bit bigger, and you can do what you want with it, and you don’t necessarily get that on campus,” he said.

Alexander understands rules are necessary, but he knows that things like not having alcohol and quiet hours don’t exist at apartment complexes.

Despite the rules, Alexander said he will miss living on campus once he graduates.

“I’ll miss everything about it,” he said. “I’ll miss the culture of being on campus.”

While Alexander chose to live on campus, two underclassmen had different experiences and now live off campus.

Spencer Orlowski, a sophomore from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., ran into trouble when he tried to move off-campus without being exempt.

At the end of last year, Orlowski had a job in Bowling Green for the summer and had to lease an apartment so he would have a place to stay.

The shortest lease lasted from June to the end of December, so Orlowski planned to live there as a sophomore. He was not aware of the housing requirement for sophomores and cancelled his dorm.  

As a result, he was fined $1,000.  However, his roommate and several other people Orlowski knew were not fined because they met the GPA requirements for being exempt from housing as a sophomore.

Orlowski had a comparable GPA and, after appealing his situation to Housing and Residence Life twice, never received an answer as to why he was fined.

During his freshman year, Orlowski lived in Minton. Not having control over the room temperature, hearing the loud people in his dorm and the dorm not feeling like a home all factored into him having a bad experience.

“The whole justification that Housing and Residence Life gives for students living on campus is that it’s better for your education and that you meet people, but I feel that I didn’t meet anyone especially helpful to my education,” he said.

Georgetown sophomore Sara Colvin lives off campus because she became exempt from the housing requirement due to her GPA.

She now lives in an apartment in Thames Valley, but last year she lived in Rodes-Harlin Hall.

Colvin worked three jobs, which was difficult during breaks because she had no place to stay.

“I would always be the last person to leave the dorms and the first person to check in because I had to work,” she said.

Colvin said she likes living off campus because it’s a place she can grow into.

“I don’t have to keep moving in and out. I can stay there and get things accomplished in Bowling Green,” Colvin said. “I plan on staying here a pretty long time.”