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Lehigh University Considering 3-Year Campus Residence Mandate for Students

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Lehigh University is considering a new rule for prospective students to enhance their experience beyond the classroom.

According to USA Today College, the Commission on Residential Environment (CORE) recommended Lehigh implement a requirement for students to spend at least three years living on campus. In the case of campus housing requirement, most schools that have such a rule only impose it on freshmen.

The CORE was formed last spring semester with 60 faculty members, staff and students coming together to examine Lehigh's campus residence. Their report, released last month, included five recommendations to improve campus living.

"These are recommendations," Jordan Reese, a spokesman for the school, told USA Today. "They are the basis for future discussions that begin now with the request for feedback from the community (and will involve core constituencies such as students, faculty, staff, alumni and community partners) and will continue over the next year.

"We are consistently assessing our learning and living environment and are committed to ongoing improvement."

Lehigh currently requires freshmen to live on campus, but they extend that requirement to sophomores on a more limited basis, allowing them to live in officially recognized fraternity or sorority houses, as well as apartments.

"Over the past five years... the social scene for undergraduates has shifted from gatherings on campus... to rented houses or apartments on the edge of campus," read the report.

Other recommendations included efforts to blend students in Greek groups with those who are not with more campus residence communal areas, such as dining halls, and on-campus events. As much as 45 percent of Lehigh's student body is involved in a Greek group, USA Today reported, this seems to be a major focal point for the CORE.

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