In a departure from current College policy, 10 percent of the Class of 2004 will be housed in first year-only residence halls and floors next year -- a move that the Office of Residential Life hopes will test the viability of the controversial freshman-only living arrangements and help meet the demand for substance-free dormitories.
Several weeks after the Board of Trustees called for a single-class residential experiment for half of freshman students, the decision to provide two exclusively freshman dormitories in the River Cluster and alternate floors in East Wheelock will serve as a transitional phase before the College drafts a more permanent plan for the Class of 2005.
"In general, first-year students have a higher need to connect and form relationships," Dean of Residential Life Martin Redman said. "So we want to create a more neighborhood environment."
The plans for next year, Redman said, "give us a way of experimenting without being detrimental to the first-year class."
Citing the already large concentration of freshmen in the River Cluster and the suite environment in East Wheelock that contributes to a diminished sense of community, Redman explained that those locations were chosen for single-class housing next year.
Members of the Class of 2004 will not be able to specify preference for mixed or single-class housing, but instead will be randomly selected to live in the freshman-only quarters.
"I would be worried about the expectation thing and starting off on a negative tone" if students do not receive their requested living arrangements, Redman said.
The new plans also allow ORL flexibility in accommodating the expected large demand for smoke-free housing.
Smoking may be banned in some or all of the freshman-only River dorms, depending on the preferences of incoming students.
Smoking will already be prohibited in the Ripley/Woodward/Smith Cluster and in the new McCulloch Hall. Butterfield Hall will continue to be substance-free, a label that bans the consumption of alcohol in addition to tobacco products.
The long tradition of mixed-class residence halls at the College has made previous efforts to provide freshman-only housing controversial and difficult.
In 1995, a committee led by the First-Year Office proposed that Dartmouth follow the example of other Ivy League institutions in creating freshman-only residential clusters.
The proposal suggested that first-year housing be coordinated with the freshman seminar program and that Senior Faculty Fellows live nearby so that students could cultivate a more intellectual residential climate.
After objections that the existing system was integral to the formation of mixed-class friendships, the proposal was abandoned and the East Wheelock cluster -- which houses freshmen through seniors in the same buildings and on the same floors -- was constructed instead.
Less than 30 percent of respondents to a poll conducted by The Dartmouth last term expressed their support for the steering committee's first-year housing proposal.
ORL's plans for single-class housing next year will allow that office to experiment with programming needs.
"It gives us control groups," Redman said.
He added that ORL will try to increase the sense of "neighborhood" through the Undergraduate Advising staff, in addition to experiments with programming in academic skills, time management and stress reduction.
"We'll try to engage in truly honest discussions in issues related to diversity and leadership development," he said.
Although alternate floors in East Wheelock will be designated for freshman-only use, the new Cluster building -- McCulloch Hall -- will remain mixed-class.
"No one's ever lived there," Redman said. "Because it's a different design, we wanted to know if the design worked better."
Redman said that the changes in housing policy for next year will not likely be financially burdensome.
"There shouldn't be higher cost issues," he said. "Maybe we'll spend a little bit more on programming, but that's all."
Because of the high number of single rooms in Topliff, that dormitory will be designated for exclusively upper-class housing next year.
-- updated 05/15/00 5:41 p.m.
