The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 39, No. 2 & Volume 40, No. 1 - 22

Stephanie Sickler • Beverly Roskos

To answer the third question—whether
there was a relationship between the characteristics of students’ current housing and whether
they would choose to live on or off campus the
following year—we conducted two different
types of analyses for the 2009 and 2010 data.
For the 2009 sample the question of whether
they would choose to live on or off campus was
measured on a nominal scale (yes/no/undecided), whereas for 2010 it was measured on a
1-5 interval scale. For the 2009 sample, we conducted 2 x 3 (characteristic: choice) chi-square
analyses on the raw frequencies for each characteristic. The results (Table 5) indicate that if students lived in new buildings, lived in suites, and
had their own bedroom, they were more likely
to want to stay on campus than were those who
lived in old buildings, traditional rooms, and
shared bedrooms. Conversely, the latter groups
were more likely to intend to move off campus
the following year. For the 2010 sample, we
conducted an independent measures t-test for
each characteristic. First-year students were
more likely to stay on campus the following
year if they lived in new residence halls (M =
3.24, SD = 1.37) compared to those who lived in
old residence halls (M = 2.89, SD = 1.32), t(921)
= 3.94, p < .001. Also, they were more likely to

Fi rs t -ye a r s t udents were more
l i kely t o s t ay on campus the
fol low ing ye ar if they lived
i n new re sidence halls . . .
co mpa re d t o those who lived
i n old re sidence halls.
22

stay on campus if they lived in suites (M = 3.15,
SD = 1.36) than if they lived in traditional rooms
(M = 2.87, SD = 1.32), t(921) = 3.02, p < .01.
Finally, respondents were more likely to stay on
campus if they had a private bedroom (M = 3.19,
SD = 1.36) than if they shared a bedroom (M =
2.92, SD = 1.34), t(908) = 2.92, p < .01.
The final question posed by this study was if
students were given an option to move to a different residence hall, would they move or would
they stay in their current housing, and would
this decision depend on where they were currently living? For the 2009 sample, the results
showed that first-year students were more
likely to want to move to another residence hall
(66.3%) than stay in their current residence hall
(33.7%). For the 2010 sample, almost every firstyear respondent (93.2%) indicated that they
wanted to move to a different residence, 3.8%
wanted to move off campus, and 3.0% wanted
to stay in their current residence. In the 2010
survey we followed up with a question, “What
factors would cause you to want to move?” Respondents chose from nine different options,
marking all that applied. In terms of the factors
that would cause students to want to move, firstyear students (n = 926) chose size/type of room
most often (49.2%), followed by friends/roommates (36.7%), proximity/location (31.7%), age
of building (31.4%), amenities (24.5%), and
cost (24.3%). Few students selected availability
(13.3%), on-site recreational activities (9.0%), or
learning communities (3.2%).
A related question was whether their
decision to stay in their current residence
hall or move to another residence hall was
related to the characteristics of their current
housing. For the 2009 sample, the data were
submitted to 2 x 2 (characteristic of current

THE JOURNAL OF COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY STUDENT HOUSING
The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 39, No. 2 & Volume 40, No. 1

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