INNOVA Research Journal 2016, Vol 1, No. 4, pp. 22-30
Student’s interpersonal relations with peers and faculty affects psychologically and
sociologically their development. While faculty play and influence academically and
intellectually on students, peers influence in non-cognitive areas such as personal autonomy, and
independence. Pascarella & Terenzini (1991) found that student-faculty interactions as well as
peer’s interactions in terms of frequency are less important than the quality of those interactions.
Therefore, living on campus increases the opportunity to cultural, social and extra-curricular
activities. Students who live off campus and commuters have a disadvantage in this sense, as
they miss several opportunities to be more socially involved.
For instance, Newcomb (1962) found that even within a small sample and research,
students in a two floor residence house with maximum capacity of seventeen students,
significantly more close relationships existed among eight men on one floor and among the nine
men on the other than between the men on different floors. It can be inferred by this research that
human beings are most likely to maintain close relationships already established rather than
searching for new ones. Residence halls can become living and learning communities, where
social and academic life is interconnected, it can become a place where books, parties,
fraternities, classes, assignments and cultural events can be shared as a learning community.
Pascarella & Terenzini (1991) showed evidence of the impact of residence in a living-learning
center compared to a conventional residence hall. They found that residing in a living-learning
center had positive effects on freshman student’s progress in getting a better understanding of
self, developing interpersonal skills and developing self-reliance and self-discipline.
Surprisingly, decreases in dogmatism and authoritarianism were also found.
Schroeder (1981) proposes that students need a balance between their need for privacy,
control, and social interaction. Administrators and residence halls managers should take this into
account and provide students with the right environment that will allow social and academic
interrelation. Students should be involved and feel responsible for their halls as a tool for
successful development. Previous research found that students who live in long corridors spent
less time studying and socializing in their residence halls, experienced more housing related
problems, described their building as more crowded and had more difficulty controlling
interaction than short corridor residents did. Students in low rise structures expressed more
satisfaction and established more friendships in the halls than those living in high rise buildings
(Baum, Aiello and Colesnick, 1978)
Similar principles can be applied to off-campus housing; however, the lack of social
interaction make it very difficult to achieve the same results as on-campus living. Off-campus
residents lose touch with other members of the community and become more commuter students
with the advantages and disadvantages this may bring. Without the residence halls students will
miss interaction, motivation, competition, confront, question, compare, criticize, differentiate,
analyze, evaluate, tolerance and persistent.
Conclusions
Students move through a transition period when starting their new college life. They face
significant change very quickly and can get frustrated and unidentified. Coming from high
school and living under parent’s rules to college autonomy and interdependence. They have to
make their own decisions, manage their emotions, and develop identity, purpose, competition
Revista de la Universidad Internacional del Ecuador. URL: https://www.uide.edu.ec/
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