Commencement and Reunion staff are scrambling to house the families and guests of the Class of 2000.
Families who did not make hotel reservations a year or more ago have the option of staying in residence halls for Commencement weekend, from 2 p.m. on Friday, June 9, through 2 p.m. on Sunday, June 11.
The College will be using all the residence halls, except the Choates cluster -- where student C & R employees are being housed -- and Hinman residence hall, to house guests of graduating seniors.
"At this point, [the rooms are] filling up very fast," director of C & R Patricia Hedin said.
Although the deadline for seniors to apply for housing for their guests was April 17, Hedin said requests are still trickling in.
Hedin said in the past the College has always been able to provide housing for seniors' guests, and this year will be no exception, although she said parking may be a problem.
"There's no longer an opportunity for preferential treatment" if guests want to stay in a certain residence hall, she added.
Seniors themselves can stay in their own Spring term rooms until noon on June 12.
As for off-campus accommodations, "pretty much every hotel room within miles is booked," according to Dean of Residential Life Martin Redman.
The Quechee Inn in Quechee, Vt., for example, begins accepting Commencement reservations on June 1 a year prior, and all 24 rooms usually fill up within half an hour, said reservationist Carol Bartlett.
At the Norwich Inn, families wanting to get a room have to think even further in advance than that. The Inn offers invitations to stay there only to families who have stayed there regularly over their children's four years at the College.
Even at less expensive and more distant lodgings, rooms fill up quickly.
Joan Soloff of the Airport Economy Inn in West Lebanon said the Inn's 56 rooms are usually all booked for Commencement weekend a month after it starts taking reservations -- a year in advance.
