In many ways, the University of Virginia is among the best places to be during America's worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. After all, the University has the resources that students need to ride out the stagnant economy as well as the academic and extracurricular opportunities that will better prepare them for success in the labor market upon graduation. However, in one important way the University is failing students whose ambitions feature an entrepreneurial bent.
In its contract for on-Grounds housing, the University stipulates that students may not operate businesses or engage in other profit-making activities from their dorm rooms. Although this policy may once have been justified by a desire to promote student welfare and to avoid the appearance of state-sanctioned favoritism, it is no longer defensible given the contemporary nature of economic opportunity and the role that government now plays in promoting business development. Rather, the prohibition on dorm-based businesses merely serves to put another barrier in the way of students who are attempting to find commercial success at one of the most difficult economic moments in the nation's history.
University Housing's policy on business activity in student dorm rooms is spelled out in its Terms and Conditions of Residence, which states in Clause 12, "The facility is to be used only as a residence. You may not use your room for business or financial gain." According to the Housing Division, this is not a University-specific policy but rather is embedded within Virginia state law. When contacted, however, the authorities at Housing were unable to cite the specific provision in question. This suggests that the policy has become a relatively unquestioned part of Housing's Terms and Conditions despite the fact that its rationale has become largely obsolete.
Specifically, the recent growth of service-sector businesses and e-commerce has made it much more likely that student start-ups can be contained within dorm rooms without causing much disruption to other students. For example, it is possible for a student to engage in small-scale financial services, online retail or technical assistance operations with little more than a laptop and a small amount of workspace. Activities such as these could net a student entrepreneur a healthy amount of profit and provide him with valuable experience and a solid springboard for his future business pursuits. At the same time, such operations would prove to be no more disruptive to roommates than are generally accepted extracurricular activities such as writing for The Cavalier Daily or managing student organizations. Furthermore, dorm-based enterprises could be of tremendous benefit to other students who might find the services offered by their peers to be both more convenient and more affordable than corporate alternatives.
Allowing the operation of businesses from on-Grounds residencies would amount to one of the most significant forms of support that the University or the state could offer to student entrepreneurs. It would eliminate the need for a student to dedicate valuable financial capital toward acquiring a space that could be used to headquarter his business, and it would mean that he would have less to lose should his enterprise fail. This mitigation of risk would enable students to create innovative and unusual new business models that would have been impossible to pursue otherwise. The state's present policy, however, is grounded in the antiquated belief that the government should have no role in promoting such economic activity. Yet anyone familiar with the generous tax incentives provided by Virginia municipalities to private businesses should understand that, for better or for worse, government support of specific commercial entities is now a generally accepted practice.
Of course, logistical challenges would still prevent many types of businesses from being operated within University Housing, and roommate contracts would specify what sorts of business activity would be allowed within individual dorms.
By removing the blanket ban on dorm-based businesses, the University and the state would offer students a tremendous new opportunity to lay the groundwork for their professional futures at a time when conventional economic opportunities remain severely constrained.
Matt Cameron's an Opinion columnist for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at m.cameron@cavalierdaily.com.
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