Making the move off campus is a difficult transition for any student. Finding the right place, the right roommates and the right location near campus are all factors that go into selecting an off-campus residence. This search process is about to get even tougher if proposed restrictions on student housing regulations are implemented.

The Lexington Town and Gown Commission is considering changes in student housing regulations that will restrict how many students can live in residential neighborhoods around campus, according to a Sept. 17 Kernel article.

“The goal is to never have students living next to each other; there needs to be a space for buffering,” said Mark Meuser, crafter of the Student Housing Task Force Report. “Students respond to how adults around them are acting.”

Preliminary plans require that no students will live next to each other.

This plan could not have anything more wrong with it. Residence halls on campus can only hold around 5,100 students, according to UK Campus Housing’s Web site. Where will the other 12,000 undergraduates live when students can’t live right next to each other?

This plan will push more and more students farther away from campus. If students live out of walking distance from campus, how will they get to campus for class? They certainly can’t drive to campus. The struggles of parking at UK have already been well documented over the years.

While concerns about noise, parking and garbage may be true, is it all the students’ fault?

This seems to be the impression that Diane Lawless, 3rd District councilwoman, and Meuser are under.

Students don’t need adults around them to know how to act. That’s why students have parents and guardians. Inserting random adults in between students is not the answer to cleaning up these problems.

Here’s an idea: They can call them “RRAs.” Residential Resident Advisers who can help these students “respond to how adults around them are acting.”  Didn’t students move off campus to move away from authority and become more responsible in the first place?