With little more than a month to go before the beginning of Fall term, many upperclassmen are finding themselves without College housing and slim chances of acquiring it before registration.
Three hundred students who applied for Fall term housing on time during Spring term were wait-listed in May when the Office of Residential Life determined there were not enough beds to house them.
Since the deadline, an additional 85 students have applied for College housing and have been put on the "late-list."
Two weeks ago ORL sent the bottom 150 wait-listed students and the 85 students on the late-list letters outlining their chances of receiving College housing for Fall term.
ORL told the wait-listed students that as of now, only the students on the top half of the list should count on receiving housing. In a letter to the late-listed students, Associate Dean of Residential Life Bud Beatty predicted that ORL would be unable to offer them housing for Fall term.
"The size of the entering class is quite large, as is the number of on-time applicants. By the time we finish housing all those students, we do not expect to have any beds available for late applicants," Beatty wrote.
Student response to the housing shortage has been negative. Dan Stern '95 and Alison Burrell '95 applied for housing on time and were put on the wait-list.
"The College should make more dorms or accept less students. The whole situation is very annoying," Stern said. Although confident he will eventually receive housing off the wait-list, Stern has spent some time looking for off-campus housing.
Burrell expressed her difficulties as a wait-listed financial aid student.
"I know more than one financial aid student that has been wait-listed other than myself. It's difficult to come up with the money for the big deposits the apartment renters are demanding. Besides, with the amount of money we pay to come here, we should be guaranteed housing," Burrell said.
"Residential Life always has a wait list for Fall term housing, because it seems as though everyone wants to be here in the fall," said Lynn Rosenblum, housing assignments administrator.
The housing crunch is caused by a combination of many things, according to Rosenblum and Beatty.
They cite the increased size of the entering class, the large number of on-time applicants for on-campus housing, an increased number of transfer and exchange students since last year and the larger number of students who want to be enrolled for Fall term as the combination that forces them to turn students away.
The class of 1997 has 1,094 students. That number is only 14 greater than the target size of 1080, the class limit number determined by President Freedman, ORL, the Dean of Freshman, the Provost and the Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid, well in advance of the admissions process.
The number of admitted transfer and exchange students, who are guaranteed housing, is only about ten greater in each case from last year, said Daniel Parish, assistance director of admissions.
Additionally, the College has decided to house five graduates in residential housing as part of a new advisor program.
This accounts for approximately forty fewer spots available than last year.
The popularity of residency during Fall term and a large wait-list contribute the rest of the shortage problem.
The total number of students on the wait- and late-lists for Fall term this year is about equal to that of any other year, Rosenblum said.
The difference is that many more students chose to apply on time for on-campus housing this year, creating a wait-list larger than usual and a small late-list, Rosenblum said.
Usually there are approximately 150 students on the wait-list and 150 on the late-list. The wait-listed students are eventually housed, and most of the late-list students take it upon themselves to find alternative housing, Rosenblum said. Those late-list students who wait for dorm housing are generally housed in the end, although at the last minute.
The large number of students on the wait-list is making it difficult for ORL to house everyone who filed rhousing applications on time, let alone the late-listed students, Beatty said.
Presently 142 beds have opened with cancellations and changes in D-plans. ORL plans to assign these beds to the first 142 students on the wait-list by the end of this week, Rosenblum said.
Further assignments for wait-list and late-list students will be available only as other cancellations occur and beds open up when people do not show up when they are supposed to.
A particularly frustrating aspect of the whole housing situation is that some students are slow in letting the registrar and ORL know their plans for Fall term, Rosenblum said.
Many students file housing contracts with ORL, are assigned housing or occupy a space on the wait-list, but are late in letting ORL know they do not really intend to occupy the space, according to Beatty.
ORL often does not find out until after registration that these students never intended to reside in the dorms, Beatty said.
Therefore, spaces are likely to open up after Fall term begins, leaving rooms unoccupied for the entire term, Rosenblum said. By that time, however, it is too late to help either wait- or late-listed students.
"Our goal is to get students to have their decisions on enrollment and housing made as early as possible, so that spaces open up and we are able to take care of those people who are still waiting for housing," Beatty said.
To alleviate the problem ORL is working with house managers from fraternities and sororities and representatives from affinity housing to try to pull students out of residence halls and off the wait-list, Beatty said.
Beatty and Rosenblum suggest to students that they explore other housing alternatives through the College's Rental Housing Office, which can provide students with a list of available off-campus housing rentals.
As a consequence of the housing crunch, the Rental Office has received many more inquiries and requests for their private housing list, said Woody Simonds, real estate manager for the College.
However, the College's rental office does not deal primarily with the housing of undergraduates, Simonds said.
The extent of their help to undergraduates is the private housing list that they can provide. Rental housing owned by the College is available only to graduate students, faculty, staff and occasionally married undergraduates, according to Simonds.
In response to the question of whether new dorms are needed to accommodate the housing demand, both Rosenblum and Beatty expressed the belief that more dorms are not required.
"The question of more dorms is not a consideration. During Winter and Spring terms there are always vacancies," Rosenblum said.
"Winter and Spring term enrollment is traditionally smaller. New dorms would only solve a short-term problem, and would create a financial burden for the College in the long run when these dorms are left unoccupied after Fall term," Beatty said.
Invariably, spaces in the dorms will open up for Winter term, Rosenblum said. Last Winter term there existed close to 200 vacancies in the dorms.
