Disputed as the residency requirement sometimes is, its intentions are noble: To create a genuine campus community. But at present, that requirement seems burdensome and indeed contradictory to the reality of campus life. With Cabra Hall closed for renovations, it seems that the university’s residency requirement will be nearly impossible to enforce. Residential Life appears to have taken some measures to address this lack of space, but from an outside perspective, these measures seem to not be addressing the full problem.

We at the Maroon admit that our stories so far have not shed much light on the subject, but obtaining this information should not be a matter of investigation. This is one Loyola policy seemingly conflicting with a separate Loyola initiative. And it is not simply a building policy, which might justifiably be a more administrative issue. It is a policy that shall directly affect half of the students on this campus. Students are the reason universities exist, and when it comes to internal matters affecting us, there should be such transparency in the process as to render our job less a matter of investigation and more one of clarification.

There are those who staunchly support the residency requirement and those who disagree with it, but either way, it is Loyola’s policy. However, the administration seems to be failing to uphold the policy in a way that is actually viable. There are options-relaxing the residency requirement, perhaps, putting students up in hotels, or renting out spaces near campus and then subletting them to students. And it is more than possible that Residential Life intends to employ some of these means to fulfill its obligation

under the two-year residency requirement. But the fact is that we do not know if any of these plans are in the works or if they are even being considered and, as yet, we have no clear idea as to how Residential Life intends to go about housing students that currently have no rooms.

Construction on campus may be proceeding in a somewhat haphazard manner, but it is happening according to a clearly visible plan that has been well-explained to students. By contrast, Residential Life has done little to clarify or explain exactly how students required to live on campus are going to do so when there simply isn’t enough space for them with the closing of Cabra Hall. Residential Life need not conform to our demands, but it does need to make its policies and plans clear enough so that any student who might be affected by them knows exactly what’s going on and why.

This editorial is the majority opinion of the editorial board named above.