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The Dartmouth
March 29, 2024 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

Housing options for fall are slim

The College's housing wait list for the Fall term has dropped from 150 to 54 students, but Acting Dean of Residential Life Mary Liscinsky said those still without housing should be exploring other options.

Although the wait list is longer than last year, it has been longer in previous years, according to Liscinsky.

"We just keep getting a high number of people wanting to live on campus because of the obvious advantages," she said.

The Office of Residential Life saved 1,090 beds for the Class of 2002, but there were "considerably more" incoming freshmen than the office had expected, Director of Housing Services Lynn Rosenblum said.

She added that all the first year students have now been housed and the wait list is currently made up solely of members of the Class of 2001.

With a larger incoming class than expected and less off-campus programs offered this fall, Liscinsky said the office is looking into the possibility of converting several study lounges into rooms.

The converted study lounges "would have all the typical amenities, since we would be using ones that were actually once rooms before," Liscinsky said.

Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Karl Furstenberg said he does not think there will be a housing crunch.

Although there are currently about 1,100 students in the Class of 2002, he expects a few more to defer admission before the fall.

Additionally, about four or five students drop out during the first week of Fall term, because orientation does not go as planned or they get sick on their Dartmouth Outing Club freshman trip, Furstenberg said.

"Ultimately, we should have about 1,095 students," he said. That is approximately the same number as there has been in previous years -- the Class of 2001 has 1,093 students and the Class of 2000 has 1,097 students.

Furstenberg said he had wanted the incoming class to be a little smaller this year since there are already two classes on campus in the 1,090 range.

However, that did not happen because there were fewer students than usual who decided during the summer not to come to Dartmouth. Furstenberg said the Admissions Office did not even need to take additional students off of the wait list this year.

"There may be a lot of juggling, but at this point there should be no real housing problem," he said.

Liscinsky said there are still beds left in affinity and special-interest houses for those who are still on the wait list.

"If I were a provisional student, I would be looking very hard for other options," she said.

Rosenblum said upper-class students who will be on leave during the Fall term need not worry about any housing shortages this winter.

This is not the first year ORL has had to deal with a possible housing shortage.

During the 1993 Fall term, 13 students on the wait list -- which was originally 370 students long -- began the academic year living in study lounges converted into makeshift dormitory rooms.

However, 10 of the students quickly canceled their housing contracts with ORL and found places to live elsewhere. The office was able to find rooms for the remaining three students by the end of the first week of school.