Students living in the off-campus housing the College is currently purchasing will probably not be affected -- for the short term -- by the change in ownership.
Dean of Residential Life Martin Redman told The Dartmouth yesterday that students should not view the process as the first step in bringing students back on campus.
"The local market has been a huge help ... helping us deal with housing issues," Redman said.
"There should be an ample supply of College and non-College housing," he said. "Students should have that opportunity [to live off campus]," he said.
At the same time, however, he said Dartmouth is a residential college. "Where you live, where you go to class, what you do outside of class ... is all part of the educational experience."
Some students living off-campus do not look favorably on the possibility of having ORL oversee their housing.
Casey Noga '00, who lives in the "Crack House" on East South Street, said "I don't think they'll be able to do it without a fight," referring to the College taking over the ownership of his house.
Noga said he doesn't feel the College understands student motives for living off-campus.
"The College thinks that people live off-campus because they don't get on-campus housing," he said. "I don't think they understand that students live off-campus because they really want to ... and that when people move off-campus they rarely move back on."
Redman, however, said he recognizes that students chose not to live in dorms or College owned property, and said he hopes to continue to provide that opportunity.
"The number last fall was 15 percent ... and dropped to 9 or 10 in the winter," Redman said of the number of students living off-campus.
Demand and desire for living off-campus is about 10 percent of the student body, the terms when the number living off-campus is greater than 10 percent is a result of a lack of housing.
He said, a "significant number" should have the opportunity to live off-campus. "Fifteen is too high, five is too low, 10 is close," Redman said, defining what he meant by significant.
Although it appears likely the residences will remain as undergraduate housing, the College has yet to inspect the properties. Redman said that other than the lower level stores and restaurants, no one from the College has stepped foot in the residential floors of the buildings.
"We wouldn't buy them site unseen," he said.
The College wants to get in and do inspections before it buys the properties -- the forecast is to do the inspections in the fall and leaving December or January for "mapping out a strategy" for what becomes of the properties.
After the College has had a chance to see the insides of the buildings and examine the safety and health situations in the buildings will it have a better sense of what short term changes need to be made.
Although Redman has only had the chance to view the outside of the buildings he said he thinks that the insides will be similar, "some ratty, some O.K."
For safety reasons -- poor wiring, gas leakages like the one that occurred in the Crack House two nights ago or violation of fire codes -- students may not be able to live in the houses until repairs have been made and standards met.
Local zoning laws also state that only three unrelated people can live in one place and from the numbers, Redman said it is likely that overcrowding exists in some of these situations.
The College would have to make some adjustments as a landlord in such circumstances.
"We would not allow students to live in a situation that violates the law," Redman said.
If some of the purchased properties had to be closed for safety situations replacement housing would be found for the students. Instead of trying to push students into campus dorms, the College would have to find "something else for the students to rent," possibly by pulling back options from faculty and staff, Redman said.
According to Redman, between 100 and 110 students live in the properties up for sale.
Although the new East Wheelock cluster dorm will accommodate 80 students when it is finished for next Fall term, these beds will take the place of those lost in the decompression of other dorms. The dorm does not add beds so much as make up for ones that are lost.
"Where would I put these students?" Redman asked. "We're going to own this space before we have a place to put them."
The residential life dean said at this point it is not clear who will manage the properties -- whether they will become part of ORL, or whether they will be maintained by the College Real Estate Office.
"We're not very good in the landlord business," Redman said, implying that the potential exists for the property to come under Real Estate control. The question is which party can best meet student needs, he said.
If the College Real Estate Office will maintain the properties, rather than ORL, the facilities will be rented from that office as they would be from a landlord, Redman said.
Noga said he felt that it would be better for students if the Real Estate Office rather than ORL controlled the houses, however he fears that the College may raise rents making off-campus living unaffordable and less attractive to students.
The College has a purchase agreement with the Hanover Investment Corporation which oversees the three blocks of land and 19 properties, according to Redman.
In a purchase agreement, a buyer-- in this case, the College-- makes an offer, usually with contingencies. In this case the contingencies may be repairs or meeting an inspection standard, Redman said.
"It's more formal than a handshake," he said.
Technically at this point either party could still back out of the agreement if stipulations are not met or a better offer is made.
The corporation entered into negotiations with the College six months ago, about the same time that the Board of Trustees announced its Residential and Social Life Initiative.
Despite the coincidental timing, the two plans were separate, Redman said.
"The opportunity presented itself" and the College wanted to look into the option of acquiring the land that became available, he said. With long term interests in mind, at a land-locked College, sometimes that means buying new land.
In the future, however, the Initiative and the property purchase have the potential of becoming intertwined. When Initiative plans become finalized in the spring, the property may be used to meet those goals in the long term, Redman said.
The Task Force proposals include building a bowling alley, new Webster Hall, increased social space and more beds -- all new spaces which do not even encompass any future academic needs. The property could be used to accommodate some of those needs depending on the spring announcement, and the amount of funding available.
"The block near the Hood, the Hop, the Lodge and the stadium is adjacent to the campus. I can easily see a relationship to the College" with this section of property, Redman said.
The funding, however, for substantial new development is not readily available. According to Redman, the new East Wheelock cluster building providing 80 beds is costing the College $8 million. The Board has said that it might provide an amount in the millions of dollars for the Initiative, but what will be done with the money would be determined by all the affected organizations.
The Initiative will probably have little short term effect, which Redman characterized as four to five years or one generation of students, on the retail businesses that occupy the properties.
Because any construction will require city planning, Town Council approval, and building permits, the town would have input and "possibly veto rights" in the decisions to change the trend and face of the town.
Two of the businesses that will come under College ownership both said they were looking forward to having the College as a landlord.
Big Green Cuts owner Trudy Clough anticipates that the barbershop will remain operational and possibly see some improvements as a result of the purchase, saying the building has been called a "death trap" for years.
At Ramuntos, owner Vincent Mackle also says he foresees that the pizza place will continue to work in its existing location on South Main Street.
