Residence Life is changing the on-campus living policy for fall, making it more lenient as a way to accommodate transfer students.

Previously, if a student at the University wanted to live off campus they had to be 23 years of age or have spent four semesters living on campus to meet the requirement to not live on campus. This is no longer going to be the case.

The University decided to change some of the residential standards based on what other University’s are doing.

“It brings us in line with our sister institutions across the state,” said Jill Carr, vice president of Student Affairs.

The universities that have similar two-year policies are Ohio University, Miami University and Kent State University.

Carr said one of the changes made was for those in the military.

The original policy required that students have 36 months worth of military service in order to not have to live on-campus; that number will be reduced to 12 months.

“We are making the campus more veteran friendly,” Carr said.

Additionally, the age requirement of 23 is now being lowered to 20.

Waters said a main reason for this is because often times transfer students will take a year or so off, and will not be 23 when they come to the University.

Carr said the changes came about after they were approached by transfer students about the policy.

“[Transfer students] were having issues with the two-year residential requirement,” she said. “These students being 21 or 22 felt they shouldn’t have to stay on campus.”

These changes came at the Feb. 21 Board of Trustees meeting, when they approved the policy.

“We had not reviewed the residential requirement for many years,” said Sarah Waters, director of Residence Life.

The reason behind the requirements not being reviewed was very simple.

“We felt the policy was fine, and we didn’t have many complaints,” Carr said. “If it isn’t broken don’t change it.”

Waters said these changes are going into effect simply to benefit the students and give them more options.

“It gives students more choices to develop their BGSU experience with what they think works best for them,” Waters said.

Senior Amber Boczar transferred to the University after her private school education became too expensive. She thinks the old requirements were not too extreme compared to her old college.

“My old college you had to stay on campus all four years so coming here was a surprise when you could move off junior year,” she said.

Boczar thinks the residential changes will not cause more people to choose the University over others.

“Not many people come for residential stuff,” she said. “I came for my major, it was the only school that had both of my majors.”