Living on campus provides a great opportunity to make friends and get involved in activities throughout the semester. The university has events to attend that are right outside of the residence halls, making it easy for students to get out and enjoy the college life. There are four residence halls for incoming freshman to choose from: Legacy, McCullough-Trigg, Killingsworth, and Pierce.

Each hall has RA’s (resident assistants) on duty at the check-in desk to help students if needed. They live in the halls they are assigned to and are assigned a certain amount of residents each year. They are also there to get students out of their rooms every now and then.

Nicole Buchanan, education junior and Sunwatcher RA said, “As an RA, I like to help get my residents involved and plan events based on their likes.”

This semester she took some of her residents on volunteer trips to help the human society, faith missions, and the women’s shelter.

“Living on campus allows residents to become acclimated to the university,” Buchanan said. “Students build lifelong friendships, allowing them to get more involved on campus.”

Throughout the year RA’s will let residents know what events are coming up and encourage them to go and have a good time.

Director of residence life, Clint Coulter said, “Living on campus is proven through research that a student is better prepared academically. They tend to have a higher GPA and higher graduation rates.”

He said living on campus does help out socially.

“Residents are surrounded by other students in the building that may have similar interests or the same major,” he said.

According to Coulter, the RA’s and housing do a “phenomenal” job at putting on programs and events.

“They do this to make sure the students stay active so they’re not just going to their rooms and shutting the door behind them,” he said. “Housing wants to be sure residents are out in the community and participating not only in class, but in programs being put on by the RA’s.”