Definitely think that's a small school thing for most of the student body. Large schools there is always something going on and plenty of coeds to discover. One of the reasons I went to mostly big schools. Our son at a school of 3500 or so, started baseball practice on weekends almost from the start, after about the 3rd week. The first few weekends he did come home to get things he forgot, etc. see the girlfriend, etc. He had one or two weekends off after that and asked to come home (we are his only ride), we said no. We felt, he's at school, he should be at school and not have him get used to going home all the time. On one or two holiday monday's he did come home after practice on Saturday. A lot of the desire to come home I'm sure was the girlfriend constantly texting if he was coming home... thank goodness for baseball.
I think the desire to be home slows down for most as they get older and establish themselves, seems house parties etc at small schools are few and far between and the students don't party like we did in the 80's. Man, who didn't look forward to the start of the weekend Thursday Night on or off campus. But for underclassmen who may not know "where to go" and see half the campus vacate, it's a reason to go home and see old friends or else be bored. I think the kids would be better off if they just pushed past that and branched out their social network.