From NASPA we have a study relating students' openness to diversity (specifically multiethnic diversity) to living on campus. The short of it: students who live on campus are more open to diversity than commuters. This is probably because they are pretty much stuck with it (diversity) and it's normal behavior to develop close bonds with people we live and work with. There is some theoretical base for this perspective.
There are a lot of issues with this one . . . commuters were underrepresented. Women and minorities were overrepresented. The researcher only received a sample size of 30% on his survey, and it is a single-method study. DJM would say: acceptable, but weak.
Still, there is enough here to indicate that living on campus helps open one's mind to her peers, and the effort on the part of Residential Ed to promote relationship-building and openness is probably not a waste of time. That's a relief!
Pike, G. (2009). The differential effects of on- and off-campus living arrangements on students' openness to diversity. NASPA Journal, 2009, Vol. 46, No. 4.
Note: I found this on the ERC database and the full text is available from there.
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