Contrary to whatever belief the administration may hold, all Vanderbilt housing is not equal. Our esteemed chancellor’s mansion strikes a clearly different note to the viewer than does Highland Quad. The Jeffersonian dormitories of Peabody, with their surrounding rolling lawns, are in no way comparable to the tall, tenement-like buildings of Carmichael Towers, with their parking lots and views of Chili’s.

Looking past architectural facades, the innate characters of these dorms are undeniably different. However, uniformity is not the demand of this column; that is a demand that would take much more time than my short time here to even begin to amend. Instead, the only demand this sophomore transfer has is for the university to wait just a few more years before it attempts to fulfill an initiative that is already over 50 years in the making.

Vanderbilt constantly seeks to compare itself to other top universities, sometimes in an unhealthy fashion. No doubt many top universities have many students living on campus, as Christine Brown’s Jan. 22 article reported. I was at one of them last year. At Brown University, however, the on-campus living was comprised of relatively uniform, brick, four-level structures with spacious rooms, and there were no unattractive high rises, except for maybe a converted hotel, which was, well, a former hotel. At other schools that have large Greek systems, such as the University of Pennsylvania, the large residential fraternity houses contribute greatly to on-campus housing as they accommodate almost all members of the fraternities’ sophomore classes, unlike those here. But I digress. Other schools to which Vanderbilt seeks to compare itself retain high numbers of students housed on campus due to either better housing options or at least a greater variety thereof.

When Dean Mark Bandas states “living on campus increases students’ interaction with faculty,” I simply laugh. Unless professors are spending the night with students, I do not think that many of our instructors are hanging around in residence halls.

However, what bothers me more about Bandas’ statement is his claim that “interpersonal skills” develop through life on campus. I live in Towers. It is more impersonal than my father’s apartment building in Washington. Last week, we had a meeting on our hall; I daresay I was not alone in the fact that I recognized approximately two people. I think most college students would agree that, after freshman year, people rarely seek to meet the residents of their hall. Although I do not declare that making new friends through continued on-campus life is impossible, I doubt any real degree of interpersonal skills is developed in the process.

Instead, I believe there are valuable skills to be developed through living off campus while still in college. Not only is paying bills a valuable lesson in itself, but learning to care for property as an adult is essential to our development. People breaking beer bottles for recreation, as they do in dorms, are not. College is a time of growth and transition in so many different aspects of life. It seems only fair that this growth be expanded to “the education of adult habitation,” if I may coin a phrase.

Maybe I am just ranting because I am being charged for a space smaller than the single rooms I have seen at other schools, yet I share this space with a roommate and pay an incredibly high housing fee. Maybe I am jealous of the great experience that The Commons will afford future Vanderbilt students. However, while living on campus may encompass the positive aspects Dean Bandas attributed to the future of residential life, it has not yet reached this promised capability. Therefore, instead of forcing students to live in transitional on-campus housing in order to end 55 years of procrastination, I ask that the university please take sympathy on our poor on-campus souls. If they cannot give us the luxuries of The Commons until later, then they should at least give us a choice regarding our living situation today.

Tyler J. P. Smith is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Science.