The following appeared in a memo from the director of student housing at Buckingham College To serve the housing needs of our students Buckingham College should build a number of new dormitories Buckingham s enrollment is growing and based on current tren

The director of the student housing at Buckingham College claims that new dormitories should be built inside the college campus. The director arrives at this claim due to several evidences; Buckingham's enrollment is growing and will double in next 50 years; the average rent for an apartment has increased off-campus and making it difficult to afford. However, to make the author's argument more tenable, several other evidences should be taken into account.

Firstly, the director claims that the enrollment will double in next 50 years and current dormitory space will be insufficient to accommodate students. Here, the director missed to give complete information of students, whether majority of the students are from Buckingham city or outside city. For instance, there's a capacity of 1000 students to be accommodated in dormitories at Buckingham College. Also, majority of the students are from Buckingham city, and when audited, more than 700 dormitory beds are vacant. So, even if enrollments double in next 50 years, the director's claim for need of new dormitory does not hold water, as the current capacity is adequate for future needs.

Secondly, the director points out that the average rent of the apartment in Buckingham has risen in recent years which may stymie the admissions at Buckingham College. It may happen that majority of the students at college, are enrolled in programs that do not require the students to come to college daily. Also, Buckingham is well connected to nearby town, where the average apartment rent is low, and the travel time to college is also low. So students may find accommodation outside the town which are even more cheaper than Buckingham College's dormitory. Thus, majority of the students might be living off-campus and discarding the need for construction of new dormitories.

Finally, the director claims that better dormitories will attract new students and not better education. Although, better infrastructure is an added advantage for the college to attract more students but it is not the sole reason. Students, who are taking admission to Buckingham College could be due to its famous technological course, which is being offered by a professor. Now after 50 years if the technology changes, the course has to replace by felicitous course. Also, the professor will retire after 50 years and has to be replaced by another professor, who can captivate students. If any of this does not happen then, the prescience of enrollment getting double will be fallacious.

To recapitulate, the director of student housing at Buckingham College presents an interesting but a flawed argument and has failed to consider specific evidences for his claims. Had he provided more evidences as mentioned above, his argument would have been persuasive. As it remains, the director's argument is too weak to be true. Hence, I remain unconvinced.