Cornerstone made history this year.

For the first time, more than 50 percent of the student body commutes. But this isn’t something to be proud of.

If you walk around Cornerstone’s campus, you’re bound to hear the word “community” more times than you can count.  In fact, one of Cornerstone’s “Five Distinctives” that they promote to incoming students is “Real Community.”

This community they boast about facilitates spiritual growth and lifelong friendships.  But if half of the student body doesn’t even live on campus, how can we hope to have a strong, unified community?

The truth is we can’t and won’t.

Unfortunately, many students who are commuters had to live off-campus because the cost of room and board was simply too expensive.

“I love being on campus and around everyone, but it costs too much,” said Ryan Humm, sophomore.

When it comes to the cost of room and board, “generally we are competitive with other colleges in the area,” said Marc Fowler, executive vice president and chief operations officer. 

This may be true when it comes to other schools, but are they competing with the prices students can afford?  A student could easily live off campus for several thousand dollars less.  What’s more, many apartment complexes offer amenities such as cable TV, an outdoor pool and a dishwasher, to name a few.  With the price tag and extras like these, it’s hard to turn down for living on campus in an aging apartment that costs nearly twice as much.  Logically thinking, shouldn’t an on-campus apartment incur the same costs as one off-campus?  How can it cost so much more to live here than anywhere else?

But that isn’t the biggest problem.  Rather, it is how the community suffers when so many people live off-campus.  There is something about living in a community that brings people closer together.

In Tuesday’s chapel, President Joe Stowell joked about the connection people feel even to the different residence halls.

“When we got rid of Quincer, the campus was in full-stage mourning,” Stowell said.

And the relationships built between individuals within those residence halls are even more important.

“When you live with someone they get to experience all the details of life with you,” said Megan Tibbits, junior.  “They get to know why your day was bad or something funny that your professor said.  When you meet someone for coffee, those are things you don’t really talk about; it’s more “big” stuff.  But it’s the little stuff that really makes friendships work.”

Tibbits is right.  Living life with someone connects you in a way that simply seeing them around campus doesn’t.  Being there for the little things forms relationships that will last.

And the spiritual culture is affected too.  The atmosphere of living in a residence hall, surrounded by other Christian men and women is not something you find anywhere else.  It’s almost like an incubator for maturing Christians.  Students are right there with each other as they go through trials and hardships to encourage one another and show each other the love of Christ.

“When you get to share the process of a struggle, the little details, with someone consistently, the answered prayers are even more beautiful, for both of you saw the whole struggle,” Tibbits said.  “It wasn’t just testifying to the outcome.”

Most students say they change a lot their freshman year.  It’s a year of maturing.  Without the influence of upperclassmen on a consistent basis, those freshman miss out on a kind of mentorship they can’t get from each other.

Living together in community is something Cornerstone says it values.  It’s time they put their money where their mouth is, and making on-campus housing more affordable for its students.