When you think of the “college experience,” how do you imagine getting to class every day?
If you were like me in high school, you imagined living in a dorm room, decorated to the nines with the coolest stuff, with a roommate you (secretly) hated. I imagined that I’d wake up every morning and stroll out my front door onto campus, without the need for a car or even a bike.
Needless to say, that’s not how my college experience has gone. Ask my car about it.
Of UT Arlington’s nearly 51,000 students, less than 20% live on campus or within 5 miles of campus. That really doesn’t fit with how most people imagine college, especially a Tier One university.
So how do we fix this?
To be honest, I’m really not sure. Maybe build more affordable on-campus housing? Make it easier for students to live closer to campus? The fact that UT Arlington in in the middle of the DFW metroplex doesn’t make it easy.
Until we can shake that title of “commuter school,” however, I don’t think UTA will be considered a real Tier One school.
Tana S. Ford 
Great read. I totally agree with your article, it’ll hard to become a “traditional tier one” with so many commuters. Like you, I don’t know how we can address the problem, but I like how you’ve suggested a few solutions!
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I am one of those in the 20% and I can feel for commuters. It is expensive and with my experience living on campus I can say that UTA doesn’t make it easy. I agree UTA could make it easier to live on campus, but it loves to make it hard on those who do, which is another reason why it will not reach tier one
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Hey Tana, I usually comment a lot sooner, but one of the people I was suppose to comment on didn’t do there blog post. I felt I could relate to what you said because I also commute.
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