Karl Palewicz, an undecided sophomore, has enjoyed specific rewards living in Paterson Hall, a South Campus residence hall.

“I believe the residence hall environment helps me do better in classes,” he said. “It makes it easier to go to class, and there are quiet places to get away when I need to study.”

Palewicz, however, said that the residence halls were “a bit crowded,” but he didn’t know what the university could do about it.

Ohio State’s undergraduate residence halls are nearing capacity, and if the space available for undergraduate housing is not expanded, the university could suffer adverse effects, said Steve Kremer, director of Residence Life.

He said that students who live in residence halls are more likely to succeed at Ohio State.

“The residence hall system’s ability to contribute to student academic success and retention is now limited by overcrowding and the lack of available space,” Kremer said.

OSU recently converted graduate student dorms such as Siebert and Morrison into undergraduate housing, renovated Neilwood Gables and increased the housing density of North Campus. Every available study lounge is being used for temporary housing, and yet the residence halls are still nearing capacity, Kremer said. The demand is that high.

“We have witnessed a slight increase in the percentage of first year students choosing to live on campus and a large growth in the number of students who desire to return to the residence halls beyond their freshmen year,” he said.

Residence halls have a significant impact on academic performance, Kremer said, citing studies showing that over the past 10 years, students who lived in residence halls during their freshman year are 10.2 percent more likely to return for their sophomore year.

He said that over the last six years, graduation rates of students who lived in the residence halls their first year were 15.1 percent higher than those who did not.

David Williams II, vice president for students and urban/community affairs, agrees with Kremer.

“Studies show that across any group you want to look at – be it by income, race, gender, anything – students living in the residence halls perform better and have better retention than those that do not,” he said.

Kremer believes residence halls are particularly important for retaining and graduating black students.

Eighty-five percent of Franklin County black freshman from the 1997-1998 academic year who lived in residence halls returned for their sophomore year, opposed to 53 percent from the same group who lived off campus.

“Residence halls are viewed similarly to classrooms, libraries and laboratories. These living places support and supplement the curriculum of the university and are locations of active and involved learning,” Kremer said.

He also said that residence halls are arguably the most important investment that can be made in terms of academic performance, pointed out that the Time/ Princeton Review‘s The Best College For You 2000 says the location of students’ freshmen dormitories can have a bigger impact on their freshman year than the courses they choose.

Kremer would like to see 2,000 more spaces created not only to accommodate the greater number of students, but to decrease density and increase the quality of the residence halls.

Meanwhile, OSU expects to create 1,000 more residence hall spaces over the next three or four years, Williams said.

He said that the university will do this by building a graduate and professional student dorm on South Campus and by converting Archer House and Lincoln Tower back into undergraduate housing.