The Office of Residential Life last week notified all 153 students who were originally placed on the wait list for Fall-term housing that they will be able to live on campus next term.
However, 62 more students -- 20 with provisional status on their Dartmouth Plans and 42 late applicants for housing -- still have not been guaranteed on-campus rooms for the fall.
Associate Dean of Residential Life Bud Beatty said he was pleased ORL was able to provide housing for everyone on the original wait list, even though it took longer than expected.
Beatty said the delay in assigning students off of the wait list was "because the size of the entering and transfer classes were much larger than expected" and because of the traditional popularity of the Fall term with upperclass students.
"Housing is always tight in the fall," he said.
Beatty also said the 62 students still awaiting housing are not necessarily guaranteed an assignment.
"With the provisionals and late list we are more than happy to house them," he said. "But if we don't have beds, there is not much we will be able to do for them."
Last year, students on the waiting list received their housing assignments by the middle of July, Beatty said.
"It took us an extra three weeks to take care of them compared to last year," he said.
The projected size of the entering class had previously been 1,090 but increased enrollment forced ORL to find housing for 1,103 freshmen, Beatty said.
The office also expected only 30 transfer students, but found they needed to house 40 students instead.
Beatty said the extra 23 freshmen and transfer students taxed ORL's ability to house everybody.
"It doesn't seem like a lot of people but 23 beds is 23 beds we can use for upperclass students," Beatty said. "It does affect our ability to take care of people as quickly as we would like to.
Almost all the students on the waiting list were Class of 1999 members, Beatty said.
The cancellation of the Asian Studies Foreign Study Program in Fez, Morocco resulted in an additional three students needing housing for the fall, Beatty said.
"They get a higher priority number because they are all '97s," he said. "We put them on the top of the list and that added to the number of people that we needed to take care of."
Amy Antman '99 was on the wait list and received a single in North Massachusetts residence hall.
"I like my room," she said. "I am definitely happy with the way it turned out."
Antman said she was previously very worried about her Fall term housing options.
"It couldn't have turned out better but it took a while," she said. "But I also got two months of stress ... and the possibility of having to change my D-plan if I couldn't find fall housing someplace else off campus."
Andrea Gonzalez '99 had started looking for alternative housing near Dartmouth because of the long delay.
"It took a while and I was getting nervous," she said. "I didn't think anything was going to happen there."
Gonzalez started looking into living at La Casa, the Latin American studies affinity house. However, Gonzalez was eventually assigned a single in Ripley residence hall.
"As long as it works out in the end, it's okay," she said. "But you are paying all this money and you could be homeless."
ORL kept sending letters to Gonzalez assuring her the office was working on finding her a room and updating her status on the wait list.
"Everyone I knew had housing except me," she said. "The last week I started to be worried."
Andrew Cernota '99 was the last person on the ORL wait list for a room.
"I am quite pleased I got a room," he said. "It was rather annoying to have to wait so long. It was very nerve-racking."
Cernota was given a single in Ripley after the two-month wait.
"I got an e-mail from [ORL Director of Housing Services Lynn] Rosenblum on the same day I got a letter from Bud Beatty, both saying that I would have to wait two more weeks to find out if I would have a room," Cernota said.
The housing assignment came the next day, Cernota said.
Cernota said that despite his low number on the wait list, he had not begun searching for alternative housing.
"I would have had to look for an apartment [if I was denied housing] which seems rather late to let people know they have to start looking," Cernota said. "It is quite a relief."
