The Office of Residential Life managed to avoid a Fall term housing crunch for the second consecutive year, despite a long waiting list at the end of Spring term that led to a demonstration by members of the Class of 2003.
The College paired the 249 students who did not receive housing in the spring with rooms that were allocated to students who later changed their D-plans to be off-campus in the fall and therefore no longer needed their spaces.
"I think Lynn [Rosenblum, director of housing services] and I bit our nails a lot ... we did our best to find accommodations to meet students' needs in a variety of ways," Dean of Residential Life Martin Redman said.
He said 250 to 300 students typically change their plans, giving ORL a significant number of spaces for the housing waiting list.
"[The number of students on the waiting list] was a higher number than we would've liked, but we made a commitment to them," he said.
Also, around 30 students, mostly seniors, opted to leave the residence halls and live in College-owned off-campus rental property when given the chance later in the year.
The apartments became available after they were renovated to meet local building codes. At the time of the room draw, it was not clear whether those rooms would meet the standards in order to be offered for students.
Despite ORL's successes, however, approximately 40 students still wait for housing as the first day of classes quickly draws near.
These include 11 exchange students and about 30 Dartmouth undergraduates who submitted a late application, some even as late as last week, Redman said.
"At this point, they're kind of caught between a rock and a hard place," he said.
Although the local housing market is the best option for them, Redman said, there is a chance that they can fill the spaces left by students who will fail to show up.
Every year, undergraduate advisers report 25 to 30 students who fail to show up in their residence halls, not having informed the school of their decision to spend the term elsewhere.
After attempting to make contact with these students, and waiting until the deadline to drop classes passes, ORL will allow students to occupy these rooms.
"The odds on housing them all are really good," Redman said. "I think we'll be able to accommodate their needs."
Currently, the 11 exchange students, who have priority over the late applicants, are being temporarily housed in apartments in an arrangement with the College rental office.
Although the housing crunch situation seems to have been solved, Redman said the idea that there is no problem is a "fallacy" because of the number of disheartened students who did not bother to apply.
Out of the 389 members of the Class of 2003 who did not receive housing through the room draw process, only 249 asked to be added to the waiting list. The rest of the students may have wanted housing, but did not believe that they would be successfully housed.
Redman is optimistic that next year's waitlist will be shorter, due to the fact that the Registrar moved the deadline to change D-plans from late July to mid-May, at ORL's request.
This would allow ORL to more accurately assess the number of empty rooms by the time the room draw takes place, due to the fact that students will finalize their D-plans sooner.
Last year, ORL also successfully housed all of the students who submitted housing applications on time. The most recent dramatic housing crunch was felt in the Fall term of 1998, when ORL was forced to convert residence hall lounges into temporary housing for students.
