Officials from the Department of Residence Life and the Department of Housing announced Thurs. Sept. 27 during the weekly SGA Senate meeting that they have finalized some of the exemptions for their new first-time, full-time freshman live-on requirement.

Students who are married or have children will be exempt from the requirement, officials said. Additionally, students in a certain age range or students who have served or currently serve in the military will be excluded as well.

Also, officials are looking at exempting students living inside of a 30-, 40- or 50-mile radius from campus, officials said. A work group is currently looking at the mileage range to determine what will be best for students.

Officials said they are still working on finalizing all of the requirements but told senators they have a work group looking at the whole requirement and will have plans finalized soon.

“We have done a lot of research with this,” said Director of Residence Life Kevin Jacques. ”We have benchmarked the university to every school in the state of Alabama and the Ohio Valley Conference.”

Jacques and Director of Housing Audrey Mitchell were on hand to answer any questions students had about the newly announced requirement.

Officials are still working on the age requirement, but Mitchell and Jacques said the requirement should be for students who are 17 to 20.

Jacques said, for example, that a student living in Lawrenceburg, Tenn. Drives approximately 80.52 miles both ways and 402 miles a week. That same student spends approximately $925 in gas a semester and 114 minutes a day on the road commuting to campus.