I was very entertained by the Pacer’s recent article on the cost of “campus” housing. I was however surprised that I found that article in the Feature Section and not the Opinions Section along with this one. It was a very one sided view. As a graduate from UTM with a degree in Communications, I know that is not the way it should be.

If we are going to compare housing costs on and off campus lets compare “apples to apples.”

First of all, a two bedroom apartment is just that, two bedrooms; you have the privacy of a room that is all yours. In a dorm room you have one room for two people. With that being said, if we are going to make this comparison fair we have to use the price of a private dorm room. In Cooper, a private room costs $1,380, according to the Housing website.

Okay, now that the comparison is fair, lets look at costs again. I lived on campus and off campus while at UTM, so these are the rent and utilities that paid for an apartment one mile from campus.

Rent $430.00 or $215.00 per person (includes water and garbage collection) Electricity $ 50.00/2 (average) Phone $15.85/2 Cable $58.90/2 Internet $19.95/2 (Aneas)

That may sound steep but, what was left out of the Pacer article is that all of the utilities are also split with the roommate. So with everything all totaled…it costs $287.36 per month to live off campus. Since there are four months in a semester the total cost comes to a total of $1,149.44.

Now, that is cheaper than the private room fee in Cooper by $235.66. If you refuse to agree with the logic that an apartment should be compared to a private room, it will cost you $169.44 more to live off campus than in a dorm with another person.

There are other obvious advantages to living off campus such as 24-hour visitation, more privacy and more room. But we could fill two more pages with all of that, and you could argue advantages to living on campus too.

So, we will not get into that argument. Just be sure to look at the “facts” before you make any decisions.

Travis Spears is 2002 UT Martin alum. He currently resides in Augusta, Ga.