The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 2 - 47

Why Students Move Off Campus

to drink heavily and engage in sexual activity
than are students off campus or in fraternities
and sororities (Harford, Wechsler, & Muthén,
2002; Page & O'Hegarty, 2006). This finding
does not apply to students living at home with
their parents, who have lower rates of alcohol,
cigarette, and marijuana use than do students
in residence halls (Long, 2015).
Given that campus housing appears to
have a positive influence on institutional retention, students' academic performance, and
overall student well-being, it is worthwhile to
examine why students would choose to move
off campus. References in the literature to retention in campus housing are surprisingly
scarce, but there have been a few studies that
have specifically attempted to answer the question of which factors drive students to stay in
campus housing or move off campus. When
conducting this kind of inquiry, there are two
main ways to differentiate between students:
by looking at the differences between what
on-campus and off-campus students say is important about their current housing situation
or by looking only at students on campus and
comparing those who plan to stay in campus
housing with those who plan to move off
campus.
Popelka (1994) took the first approach,
asking both on-campus and off-campus students to rate their agreement with various
statements about their current housing. From
a larger list of factors, Popelka identified five
that could be used to differentiate on-campus
and off-campus students. Off-campus students
were more likely to agree with statements
about independence and their ability to focus
on academics in their current living situation,
while on-campus students were more likely

The traditional residence hall
design of shared rooms and
community bathrooms was
created to foster a sense of
community among residents,
and disrupting this could have
unintended consequences on
student integration and even
institutional retention .

to agree with statements about convenience,
extracurricular activities, and living with a
diverse group of people.
Cleave (1996), by contrast, looked only at
students in campus housing and whether they
were reapplying to campus housing for the
following year. Students choosing to return to
campus housing emphasized convenience and
social opportunities as the top factors in their
choice, while those opting to move off campus
ranked living conditions-including being
able to have one's own private space-and cost
as the most important factors.
Possibly the most comprehensive research
to date on this question was done by Li, Sheely,
and Whalen (2005), who asked students about
their housing plans for the following year
and to rate how important each factor was in
making their decision. Significant positive
predictors of planning to return to campus
housing were giving high importance to the
ability to be on a dining plan, leadership op-

V o l u m e 4 4 , No. 2 * 2 0 1 8

47
The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 2

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 2
