Aug 23, 2014 12:12 PM EDT By J Baulkman, UniversityHerald Reporter

The University of Houston in Texas has scrapped plans to require freshmen who live more than 20 miles away to live on campus for one year.

Text messages obtained by The Houston Chronicle show that after a lengthy exchange with Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, last Saturday, the university's Chancellor and President Renu Khator killed the plan to require freshmen students to live on campus.

 "I have already killed any further consideration on it," Khator wrote Whitmire after he had denounced the idea as insensitive to student needs and UH history, according to The Houston Chronicle. "Can you please forgive?"

School administrators who supported the proposal - which would have gone into affect fall 2015 -- pointed to evidence of higher retention rates for those who live on campus. They also said students make better grades and take more classes when they do so.

However, Whitmire argued that it was less expensive for students to live elsewhere.

On Tuesday, he said data provided to him by the University of Houston showed that it would cost students nearly $5,600 more annually to live on campus. He said the university needs "to rememberto Require its clientele, which has historically been working class students who can't afford the extra costs."

The University of Houston is a state research university and the flagship institution of the University of Houston System. Founded in 1927, University of Houston Central is Texas's third-largest university with nearly 41,000 students and is one of three Tier One Universities in Texas, along with Texas A&M College Station and University of Texas at Austin.

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