Often balancing careers with their studies, graduate students are typically commuters. But living on-campus can offer such students an edge, as a new Stetson University student and graduate assistant has found.

Tiara Taylor came to Stetson to pursue a master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. But the Miami native, who received her bachelor’s at Edward Waters University in Jacksonville, knew nothing about the Stetson campus or the DeLand area. As a graduate assistant in the Department of Counselor Education, she also needed easy access to campus.

“As a grad student, especially if you’re not a Double Hatter, you don’t know the ins and outs of what’s going on at Stetson,” Taylor says. “I wanted to be able to build that community and also be able to know my way around the university.”

A resident of Emily Hall, Taylor has benefitted from the knowledge and experience of neighboring upper class students who have lived on campus two or three years. She has also been able to build a relationship with her resident assistant. “He’s very communicative and he does one-on-one meetings,” she says.

According to Jessica Day, executive director of Residential Living and Learning, Taylor is one of 11 graduate students living on-campus, a number Day describes as “pretty high.”

Some of the graduate students are resident assistants who remained in their roles as RAs as they transitioned directly from their senior year into their graduate programs, Day says. Some are athletes who were given an additional year of eligibility because of time lost during the COVID pandemic. While others like Taylor, do not live in the area.

Day expects the demand for on-campus housing among graduate students to continue. So, she and her team put their heads together to determine how they can best serve them going forward.

“For this next fall, 2023-2024—because we anticipate the same flow of graduate students coming in next year—we created their own Housing Central application so that we can intentionally place them in locations more suited to somebody 22 and older,” Day says. 

Emily Hall, where Taylor resides, is one such venue. “Emily is pretty quiet but still connected because it’s central to campus,” Day says. It provides a suite-style environment with one roommate and a bathroom shared with a second suite. It also offers a quiet floor.

Day says she sees a strong correlation between living on-campus and thriving academically. On-campus living allows students to have “all the resources central to you: the library, tutoring, your professor,” she says. “All of those pieces allow for a more vibrant experience for any student in general regardless of what year they might be.”

Students also thrive socially when their educational experience is less disjointed. “Tiara is getting a connection to members of the community she probably would not have if she lived off-campus and worked full-time and commuted to the campus,” Day says.

In addition to her increased ability to build relationships and participate in local events, Taylor has enjoyed access to campus resources and an easy commute to her graduate assistantship. The experience has been so positive that Taylor plans to apply for on-campus housing again next year. “I think it’s easier, more accessible and to a certain extent, it’s actually cheaper,” she says.

-Cheri Henderson