In an attempt to relieve the impending housing crunch next term, the College is offering a collection of financial and academic incentives to convince students to change their Dartmouth Plans for this fall.
Early this week, Dean of the Faculty James Wright, on behalf of the Enrollment Committee, sent separate letters to students who have on-campus housing for Fall term, wait listed students and parents of wait listed students outlining the College's immediate plans to house about 180 students.
The letters said if any student enrolled for the fall or who is still on the wait list agrees to change their D-Plan to be off in the fall, they will receive half off their room rent for the next term they are on.
The average room rent is $1,085, and the offer is only valid for members of the Classes of 1996 and 1997.
In return for changing their plans, these students will also receive higher room priority numbers the next term they are on campus and will have the highest priority within their group &emdash; such as senior majors &emdash; for course selections.
Students who changed their D-plans to "off" for the fall before the letters were sent out on Friday are not eligible for the offer.
Wright said his primary focus is dealing with the students on the wait list.
"I'm more concerned in dealing with the enrollment pressures and the one-hundred eighty students who don't have a place to sleep. Right now, I have to keep focused with that," he said.
The committee also offered students with Fall-term housing the opportunity to share their rooms with an additional student for the term. All residents of the room will receive a proportional deduction on their room rent and all roommates must agree.
Wright said he does not expect the incentive package to completely resolve the problem.
With no end in sight to Fall-term housing crunches, the Enrollment Committee will create a task force of administrators, faculty and students to search for long-term remedies to the problem. The task force will complete its assignment by the end of Fall term.
Associate Registrar Nancy Broadhead, who serves on the Enrollment Committee, said, "We wanted to try everything that was reasonably possible, I don't think anybody felt we had a single solution to the problems."
Wright said that student input was not involved in designing the plans the committee released.
"It is really interesting. When big decisions come up … these are not student decisions. They are done behind closed doors," said Summer Student Assembly President Grace Chionuma '96 at last night's Assembly meeting.
But Wright said students would be involved in future decisions regarding the housing crunch.
"We will do something different next year," Wright said. "It will have to deal with enrollment patters I guess. I want students involved with that choice."
Committee members said there were several causes to the housing crunch.
In recent years, more sophomores and juniors have elected to be on in the Fall term. Also, about 70 students less than usual are going on off-campus programs, according to Assistant Dean of the Faculty Peter Armstrong.
Armstrong sits on the Enrollment Committee and coordinates the College's foreign exchange programs.
For the past three years all students have received their first choice D-Plans. But Wright said the policy might have to change.
The letter to students said, "The single most important factor that has contributed to this problem concerns Dartmouth Plan elections."
Eliminating the D-Plan entirely is not currently under discussion, Wright said.
"The D-Plan gives us all sorts of flexibility and opportunity, it's remarkable in the freedom it allows people but free choice has consequences and I think we need to think a little bit about that," Wright said.
Wright said he would not rule out the possibility of building a new dorm, but said he did not think that it would be a good solution to the problem.
"To have a dormitory that's going to be vacant for three quarters of the year is not the prudent way to manage our resources," Wright said.
