Residents living in the dorms say they are happy with their living experience on campus.
According to a survey taken last fall, 65 percent of residents are satisfied with their overall dorm experience, and 72 percent of first-year students are also satisfied.
One quarter of the 522 students living on campus answered the survey.
"The survey shows that students are involved and are happy with on-campus living," Dean of Students Randall Boeglin said. "I'm most happy with the RAs and that students felt safe. Living on campus adds value to your college experience."
According to the survey, 64 percent of students responding said they felt like a part of the
campus community, 65 percent said they've participated in hall programs, and 88 percent said they are more knowledgeable of the UNM campus than students who live off-campus.
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Eighty-two percent of students said they felt safe on campus, and 72 percent were satisfied with the availability of resident advisers.
Joey Dworak, a resident adviser at Coronado Hall, said he has spent four years in the dorms and has seen his fair share of positives and negatives.
Student housing services strives to combat the negatives, he said.
"It's important that there is more co-operation between housing, which handles a lot of the physical aspects of housing, and Residence Life, which deals a lot with the social aspect of living on campus," he said. "The dorms allow students to feel like more of a community, and that's important to raise campus awareness."
Walter Miller, associate vice president of Student Life, said UNM is making strides in improving student life on campus.
"The community feel is important at this or any other University," he said.
Miller said it's important to give students more avenues to get involved.
"Utilizing La Posada for a larger area where students could sit together would be great," he said. "We are currently working to run cable into the building so students can watch the elections, sports games or anything else together."
Miller said the community aspect of dorms will improve if students are required to live on campus for the first year. It will also improve graduation rates, he said.
Student Camila Ruiz, a resident of Redondo Village Apartments, said UNM can improve student life by keeping up with the maintenance of the rooms and buildings.
"Improving and adding more of the activities that are done with all the dorms would make the community feel much better," Ruiz said.
Student Theresa Miller, a Coronado Hall resident, said she likes the opportunities on-campus living offers.
"Making friends and creating a family away from home was the best thing that I could have done when entering UNM," she said. "People are so friendly, and it was super easy to get involved on campus."
