BY ANDREW MONSON
After two years of uncertainty brought to campus by COVID, normalcy is making a return and so are residential students.
The Fall of 2020 and 2022 show historic spikes in first-year commuter numbers which Vice President for Enrollment Management Joseph Dacey said can be attributed in at least some way to the uncertainty brought about by COVID.
According to Dacey, the number of first-year commuters attending Stonehill went from 51 in the Fall of 2019 to as many as 77 in the fall of 2021.
“However, we certainly expect that the uncertainty caused by the pandemic partially motivated students’ decisions regarding their living arrangements since 2020.” said Dacey.
This year's first-year class of 725 students is one of the largest in school history according to Dacey, despite this, the number of commuting first-year students dropped back down to 50.
Dacey attributes this drop in commuter numbers in 2022 to the return of a more normal and predictable world for students.
“I believe this year’s relative return to ‘normalcy’ is at least partly the reason why we saw a bit of an adjustment back in line with historical averages,” said Dacey.