Housing students has become increasingly difficult for the Office of Residential Life as student enrollment rises, and the office faced an unprecedented housing crunch this term. For the first time, ORL was unable to provide housing for 13 students.
"This is very much out of the ordinary," Director of Housing Services and Residential Life Lynn Rosenblum said.
The current waitlist of 13 students -- all of whom applied after last term's housing application deadline -- decreased from the more than 50 students informed in February that no housing would be available. Twenty of those 50 students had applied before the deadline, and the remaining 30 students had submitted their applications late.
ORL managed to place all of the students who applied before the deadline, but was unable to accommodate some people who had turned in their forms late.
The College's residence halls and affinity houses have space for 2,802 students, and there are an extra 838 beds in college-owned Coed Fraternity Sorority houses, college-affiliated CFS houses, Amarna and Panarchy, and in the College's social organizations.
The housing system prioritizes students who apply by the deadline and are studying in Hanover. But submitting an application late lowers priority.
Traditionally, the College allocates any remaining housing spaces to students who are on campus but not enrolled in classes.
The shortage of housing pushed students like former Undergraduate Advisor Jodie Lee '00, who is working in Paddock Library and interning for the Environmental Studies department this term, into off-campus housing across the river in Norwich, Vt.
"I really couldn't live where I am without a car," she said. "I would much rather have been on-campus."
She said she realizes that those students enrolled in classes have housing priority, but she saw a lot of students, particularly those not enrolled for the Spring term, who had problems finding housing.
"I got blitzed by a bunch of people who had seen my name and were wondering if I'd gotten any leads that I wasn't going to take," she said.
Although less housing was available than during typical Spring terms, Rosenblum said a lot of spaces opened up for students on the waiting list when others changed their D-plans at the last minute to be off-campus this spring.
"We managed to take care of everyone who was on our original wait list," Rosenblum said.
Brian Sharp '01 turned in his application late, but ended up getting housing without any trouble from Residential Life.
"They were very cordial and quite friendly about it," he said. "I must say, as far as potentially not having housing goes, they made it a fairly painless experience."
Registrar of the College Thomas Bickel said more students are on campus this spring than in previous years, but he had no explanation for the abnormal number of students on-campus.
The registrar's office hopes this term's high enrollment will cut down on the normally large Fall term enrollment for the coming school year, he said.
But Rosenblum expects the usual housing crunch for the Fall Term.
"Fall term, we always have a wait list for housing," she said. "We'll just have to see how many students will be here in the fall, and how many will be entering in the Class of 2003."
