The difficulty here lies is the assumption that compulsory residence hall living will create true community. While dorm life is a huge aid to the early college experience, offering the lone and the panicky a ready-made pool of thirty new friends plus bonding activities, the average upperclassmen has forged his or her social connections for good. The big hall packs tend to disperse over the years, instead becoming smaller groups of lifelong friends kept with little or no regard for sleeping location.
Community is a voluntary, mutually created phenomenon.
The extension of brotherly love, grace, forgiveness, and even something as simple as social or service involvement remains a conscious decision made by every Asbury student, regardless of street address. Much like personal faith, participation in community cannot be forced by creation of a perfect environment. It can only be encouraged. The previous example assumes, of course, that the off-campus student is aware of the communal opportunity to begin with. But by its very definition, Handbook community makes for the social unplugging of the numerous commuters, married students, and mature students who are currently enrolled.