While writing my analytic essay I have understood the ways in which privatization affects students and society more clearly. I have learned more about how privatization is a business, how the costs directly impact students, their future, their parents and a liability to their education. In addition, these business routines that education institutions have become accustomed to have made a large impact on student's decision to dorm or not. When there is a $12,000 additional fee for students to live on campus that include cleaning services, electricity, and other miscellaneous fees for a 14 by 12 foot room it is not very convincing for parents to pay such an exorbitant amount when commuting is an option.
For my paper on the benefits of living on campus, its crucial to mention privatization and how it has effected the amount of students choosing to dorm and how their decisions have consequences for their social and intellectual growth. If students automatically shut down the option to live on campus just because of the cost they do not know the opportunities they are missing out on to network, meet their peers and really get involved on campus. The extra cost to dorm has the capability to cost students a life time of valuable memories and enriched experiences.
If privatization could be stopped as I claim in my analytic essay it would have to have the gathering of enthused and passionate students ready to fight for what is theirs and for an appropriate price. For a building that was built in the 70s, cramped with two people, old furniture and bare resources, there is no need for the ridiculous cost and the students have the power to change what needs to be changed.
College privatization has been impacted by the state of our economy and state's neglect to assist the institutions, relying on colleges to increase rates for individual students causing more debt and more adversity to living on campus. This continuous cycle has created an ongoing challenge for students to face the costs of dorming up against the worth of their future for their institution.
You need to recognize that the reasons you value dorming -- valuable memories and enriched experiences -- are private values, and things that most people would say have to be paid for by individuals. Same with the quality of the dorms themselves: part of the reason that dorms are so expensive these days is that they have spent a lot of money upgrading them (and I would assume that those in the traditional housing are subsidizing the newer housing). The reason for upgrades to dorms? Privatization: the new consumer model. And how have dorms changed? They have given students more private space, and thus fewer shared experiences. If the value of dorming is purely private, then you are going to have a tough time arguing that anyone but individuals should pay for it... If you are going to argue for the social value of dorming, then you might get somewhere -- but you are going to have to focus on that and find a way to make it stick. Meanwhile, I think you should also consider some of the downsides of dorming as well, as suggested by Moffatt and Nathan. You have to at least deal with the counter-argument they suggest, that dorming can be very detrimental to some students. Until you start researching, though, you'll still be limited by your assumptions about the value of dorming. So start research. And look at ways that some schools have turned dorming into a socializing experience that is supportive of academics and of heightened social consciousness.
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