On a sunny autumn afternoon on the south side of campus, six to 12 different vehicles drive up and down a street lined with cars on both sides, around curves, and around each other as leaves blow by. A woman uses her cellphone to ask a friend to pick her up. A student sits on a bench and watches the cars go by as he talks on the phone and lets out a laugh: He has been sitting in the spot for roughly an hour waiting for the bus back to his home off campus.
The University of Memphis offers events and groups for all students to participate in and has different services available for those on campus, but a majority do not live in the dormitories.
The university is largely a commuter school: Approximately 90 percent of people who attend live off campus, with some coming from other areas of the city, or even from out of state, according to Heather Hampton, office coordinator of the Adult and Commuter Student Services-an organization devoted to helping students stay involved with events.
“A big focus of our office is letting commuter students know that there are ways they too can get involved, even though they are not submersed in the campus life because they are not here 24/7,” Hampton said. “Being a majority commuter school does impact the students’ willingness to get more involved on campus.”
Hampton said that when she was a student, living on campus let her build connections with others, more easily get to class and stay involved, while living off-campus and going to school via vehicle let her become more familiar with Memphis, sympathize with those who have to commute, and gave her more “sense of freedom.”
Not everyone who commutes to the university has personal transportation. Emmanuel Bass, a political science major, has to take a bus to and from the school.
“Last week, when I stopped at a second location, it took me an hour and a half to two hours to get here, so I was late,” he said. “I usually wake up early in the morning around 6:00 a.m. and wait for the bus until around seven. I stood there for more than an hour waiting for the bus, and that is painful, and not everybody will accommodate that. I work around the schedule as much as I can, but sometimes it’s too difficult to cope.”
Bass has considered staying on campus for the sake of convenience, but chooses to live in an apartment to be closer to his work, avoid having to pay the price of student housing, and not have to “play by the rules of the dormitories.” Despite his struggles, he said that he wants to continue his studies at the university until he graduates.
“I just want to go through the conditions I’m going through, and graduate here at the University of Memphis: That is my goal,” he said. “I have to keep moving, and I’m not looking backwards. I can’t look to the left, I can’t look to the right, I am not looking up, and I am not looking down, either. I am looking to graduate someday.”
