A still-unfinished Office of Residential Life study of student housing needs will recommend that the College add more undergraduate beds, Dean of Residential Life Mary Turco said.
"I know we will ... need to build new beds," said Turco, who is working on the study with Associate Dean of Residential Life Bud Beatty. "What I am not yet sure of is how many and in what configuration."
The comprehensive review of student housing needs should be completed and sent to Dean of the College Lee Pelton by early next month, Turco said.
The ORL report is an integral part of the College's work to implement the final report of the Committee on the First-Year Experience. The final report, written by Pelton and released in May, called for the creation of one mixed-class "super-cluster," which will have a dean, a senior faculty adviser, additional programming space and more resources than other clusters.
Turco stressed the suggestion to add new beds would only be a recommendation, and the proposals described in the ORL review must still be approved by the College's Board of Trustees.
In an interview yesterday, Pelton agreed it is "likely" the final ORL review will recommend the construction of more on-campus beds.
Pelton said once the report reaches his desk, he will "have to make some decisions about whether or not it is feasible to build new beds."
In making his decision, Pelton said he will consult with other senior officers of the College, including College President James Freedman and Provost Lee Bollinger.
Turco said Pelton is constantly being updated by ORL on the progress and findings of the study.
The reason the comprehensive review isn't completed is because the last major piece of research -- a survey of the Class of 1998 -- has not yet been finished, Turco said.
The survey of the Class of 1998 will occur later this month.
Pelton requested that Turco and Beatty do the study at the beginning of the summer as part of several recommendations made in the final Committee on the First-Year Experience report.
In June, the Board of Trustees approved Pelton's first-year experience recommendations and asked "to begin a process to establish a student residential unit that includes living quarters for a member of the faculty, social space, and academic space," Turco said.
The original report of the Committee on the First-Year Experience, released in May 1994, called for the creation of three primarily freshman residence clusters with senior faculty advisers.
Turco said ORL has been compiling data that will answer two questions: "Does Dartmouth need to construct additional beds to address both the quality of life for undergraduates and the off-campus housing issue?" and "If additional beds are necessary, how many will be needed?"
"We haven't yet settled on a number of beds to recommend," Turco said, "because we're discussing what each of these models would accomplish ... and what institutional dilemmas would be addressed by each model."
Although Turco would not say where the beds would be added, the College would likely either add a fourth residence hall in the East Wheelock cluster or attempt to build a new residence hall cluster.
