At Lakeland University, about 30% of Lakeland’s main campus students are commuters (Research.com). Most of these students participate in athletics, clubs and Greek life organizations on campus. Often, many of these commuters have schedules that cause them to wait around for their next class or convocation event, sometimes even for hours at a time.
The Younger Family Campus Center provides an open, relaxing environment for students to hang out with friends, get a bite to eat or study and complete homework. Because of this, there is no wonder that the Campus Center has become a hub for commuting students during the day.
By sending out polls through email to discover commuters’ favorite things about the Campus Center, they identified that the area is an easy place to interact with students living on campus. The Campus Center provided a sense of community for those that were not here all the time to develop a deep relationship with other students living on campus.
In a 2023 study done by Lakeland students Kaylee Zipperer, Sarah Stege, Mikayla Rieck, Jordan Brown and Maddie Bentley, it was found in a frequency Likert scale question that “on average, 57.14% of students sometimes to always feel stress due to [convocation requirements].” For commuters specifically, that statistic jumps to 81.82%.
Many commuters reflected on study sessions with friends and fellow athletes, chilling in the glass rooms and just enjoying the family-like environment the Campus Center gives to everyone who is present there.
Although it may seem like a nuisance to be waiting hours between classes and events, lots of the commuting students think that the time spent waiting around is worth the price cut of schooling compared to those that live on campus.
Photo credit: Samantha Klusman.
By living at home, these students save approximately $10,000 a semester, making their college experiences much more affordable. Further research states that commuter students commonly spend around $80 to $100 on gas. This cost difference was found by adding together the basic pricing for housing, furnishings and required food plans that residents must pay for.
To find out the exact costs of residential living at Lakeland University, visit the tuition and costs page on the university’s website at https://lakeland.edu/tuition-and-costs.com.