Student organizers deliver petitions to end housing requirements for freshmen

By Felicity Guajardo

Director of News and Culture

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Young Americans for Liberty at Texas State are calling on President Damphousse and university administration to allow freshmen to voluntarily live on-campus.

The rally led by Eric Pinteralli, president of Young Americans for Liberty at Texas State, started at noon today on The Quad and a march to the President’s Office to deliver nearly 1,000 signed petitions started around 12:45 p.m.

Texas State Housing Policy and Contract requires freshmen under 20 years old with fewer than 30 credit hours to live in university housing.

Pinteralli said that a big reason why they are petitioning is to ensure all freshmen can spend their money how they would like to.

Pinteralli applied for an exemption to live off-campus when entering college due to financial reasons as a freshman but it was denied. This led him to raise opposition in 2021 as an elected senator in Texas State student government.

Although, the push for a resolution to end the housing policy fell short.

“Not only did it fail, but the university had heard about it and they essentially stepped in and told the president, the student body president, to tell the senate that there was basically, in professional terms, that there was no point in passing it because they weren’t going to do anything about it,” Pinteralli said.

Since then, Pinteralli met with President Damphousse and Vice President of Student Success, Cynthia Hernandez, last October about a resolution. However, a negotiation was not reached.

Abby Myers, Vice President Pro Temp for Student Government, said she understands where the concern is coming from, but disagrees that ending housing requirements would be a good option.

“One of the main reasons that we have freshmen live on campus is because it’s been proven to increase retention rates, graduation rates, it creates a community on campus for them to have as they go throughout their four years here and so I think trying to take that away from students…would be really unfortunate,” Myers said.

The 2024 retention rate for Texas State University was 80%, according to Data, Analytics and Institutional Research at Texas State.

Another key factor about the petition is to allow freshmen to make independent decisions.

Myers believes that living on-campus allows freshmen to be independent in a safe way and prepares freshmen to live off-campus.

“But we have to look at like Texas State student body as a whole and be like there are some students that need that supervision in the beginning of their time,” Myers said.

“And that’s not something negative against them. It’s just we have to kind of build them towards being able to live off campus.”

Alamito & Cibolo Hall opened up in the Fall semester as well as the purchases of Sanctuary Lofts and Vistas to accommodate growing numbers of freshmen. Texas State also reached record enrollment in the Fall with 40,678 students enrolled in San Marcos and Round Rock Campus.

New student enrollment- comprised of freshmen, transfers and graduate students- rose to 12,328 students in the Fall.

Student Rights Director for Young Americans for Liberty, Daniel Gonzalez Allende Barr, said that allowing new students to chose where they live can encourage more freshmen to attend Texas State.

“Dorm quality is low when you have that large of an influx of, of freshman and you know, only so many dorms to house them,” Barr said.

“Inevitably, you run into issues. So, if we can alleviate those issues from the school, and if the school can give those students, you know, the liberty to make better financial decisions. You’re going to see more students come to college.”

Requests to speak to the Department of Housing and Residential Life (DHRL) director and other Texas State DHRL officials regarding this petition have been denied or not answered.