Really appreciate thoughts on this Argument task

[Zafiro An]

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 trends, will double over the next 50 years, thus making existing dormitory space inadequate. Moreover, the average rent for an apartment in our town has risen in recent years. Consequently, students will find it increasingly difficult to afford off-campus housing. Finally, attractive new dormitories would make prospective students more likely to enroll at Buckingham."

Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.

The following argument is flawed for numerous reasons. Primarily, the argument is based on the unwarranted assumptions that adding new dormitories to the Buckingham College will serve the housing needs of new students.

First, the director is pointing out that based on current trends, the enrollment will double in the next years. There are several ideas that might contradict this. For example, new schools might open in the following years near Buckingham College, thus making students choose them over Buckingham. Also, degrees interest might change over the next years and if Buckingham College does not offer what students are looking for, then students might not choose Buckingham.

Second, the author is referring to the recent rise of rent of apartments in town and how this will make very difficult for students to afford off-campus renting. There are many options for students to afford this kind of housing, and let’s remember that not all students like to live inside campus. Maybe some of them will ask for a loan, others might search for different scholarships that will help them pay part of the rent, and others might look for other two or three students that are also willing to pay rent, thus dividing the spending and making it more affordable.    

Another assumption is that by creating new dormitories prospective students will be more tempted to enroll at Buckingham’s. Reinforcing the previous observation, many students might not like to live inside campus, thus this option would not be appealing at all. Also, while this option might be tempting for some people, one of the most important reasons students choose one college over another is the study plan or curriculum, so adding new dormitories might not be a real deal-breaker for the majority of them.

Because the argument makes several unwanted assumptions, it fails to make a convincing cause that new dormitories at Buckingham College will help with the enrollment of new students.