OT: MSU is broke. In fall 2021, all second year students have to live in dorms.

Well with a 3 billion dollar endowment, maybe they can just eat into that for a year or two and not offload the trouble to students.  Dare I say maybe some high paid admins can take a pay cut too?

From the linked article:

MSU’s occupancy capacity is 18,203, which accounts for all residence hall room types and apartments. It’s estimated the number of first- and second-year students living on campus would be roughly 16,000.

I read that as meaning two things: (1) revenue, as the OP suggested, and (2) a move to push occupancy so they don't have to face consolidating and possibly mothballing a dorm or two.

All that said, I think living on-campus for the first two years is, on balance, a good thing.  Michigan State is a campus that's fairly large, and a lot of apartments are some distance from key instructional buildings. 

When I attended from 1977 to 1981, that rule was in place.  I didn't mind dorm life ... mostly because I was still growing (5'10" in high school to 6'1" to start sophomore year) and I needed all the food I could eat.  The dorm system worked out for me.  I shocked more than a few cafeteria servers going back for thirds, fourths ... hell, one meal I went back 16 times.  (They would only serve one taco at a time.)

Yup.  Morally broke.  Financially broke.  Defines MSU. 

Ohio State did this (I think) about 10 years ago.   Don’t think MSU is broke.  

I would take up a class action lawsuit on this if I were planning on going there. Paying 10 grand or more per semester to live in relatively shitty conditions relative to an apartment is just financially stupid. 

Freedom 

they tried to change their model to more international students the last couple of years because the in-state model wasn't working.  

then Covid. . . 

Out of all the things they could do, this is one of the least objectionable. Student apartments near MSU are terrible, and the students are gouged hard by the local slumlords (at least, this was the case when I lived in Lansing). Dorms are at least maintained.

I assume there will be massive exceptions, for people in frats/sororities, and when they inevitably run out of rooms? Didn't read the article.

If MSU suddenly jacks up dorm prices by $10k, then students can burn some couches.

As someone running the biggest study on residence life in 30 years, be thankful they are doing this. In normal times, your kid is more likely to persist (and likely graduate, can't claim this definitively yet) if they live in the residence halls a second year. The impacts are likely to be more acute now as the pandemic limited social interactions last year. Given the perceived make up of the board, the relationship is particularly large for rich kids who live in large houses or the greek system.

This is also under active discussion at a number of schools even before the pandemic. Schools wish they had the capacity to enforce this type of rule, but the large number of college-aged kids meant they lacked capacity. As the demography changes, the capacity challenges are waning. Adding a second-year mandate is top of the list of non-COVID priorities for the provost at my Big10 institution.

The data clearly show that (1) couch-burning tendencies peak at age 19, and (2) off-campus couches are at higher risk than university-owned couches. This is simply an effort to save the furniture.