"It's a little more busy this year," said Dartmouth Dining Services worker Nick Grano. "The lines are long, long, long."
Each year, the "pea green" members of the Dartmouth community are told that they are the biggest, brightest and most diverse class ever. But the Class of 2005, with an enrollment of 1,135 students, makes such clichs a reality -- it is truly the biggest class to enter Dartmouth College.
The housing crunch has been the most visible result of the '05 influx, but other campus facilities are feeling the strain as well.
"The class size issue is going to follow this class throughout the four years," said Gail Zimmerman, Dean of First-Year Students. "It doesn't end with housing, and it certainly doesn't end with Orientation."
One problem that will persist is the difficulty in finding a space in which to seat all the '05s. "We don't have a venue that's large enough to hold the entire class for performances," Zimmerman said, and, as a result, about 10 percent of the class saw required events during orientation in Moore Theater or Alumni Hall. "Seeing a show live is much different than seeing it on a screen," said Zimmerman. "That is very unfortunate; we've tried to minimize [the effects]."
The Admissions Office has done everything it can to reduce the size of the freshman class, for which the expected enrollment was 1,075 students. "New transfers ... were projected to be at 35 students and ended up at 28 students," Karl Furstenberg, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid told The Dartmouth.
"We intentionally cut back on our transfers when we knew the '05s would be a large class." A total of 42 students -- accepted into the Class of 2005 -- decided to defer to the class of 2006; 17 of these students decided to defer after the Admissions Office offered free housing for the following year.
To accommodate the freshmen who must satisfy their first-year writing requirement, the English department has added two extra sections of English 5 -- one in the fall and one in the winter -- an extra section of English 2-3, and another first-year seminar. According to English Professor Monika Otter, less than half of the freshman class must wait until the winter to take English 5, which is typical.
"Clearly, other courses will experience small increases," Dean of Faculty Jamshed Bharucha told The Dartmouth, "but we haven't had to take any significant steps yet, beyond the first-year seminars and English 5." In the future, the unusually large class may affect participation in FSPs and LSAs and registration in upper-level seminars.
The effects of high enrollment are perhaps more visible in places like Food Court and Collis Caf, as Jane Ratskovskaya '05 observed firsthand. "The lines at the Hop last night were about 10, 15 minutes long," she said.
To DDS Director Tucker Rossiter, however, this comes as no surprise. "Dining services are probably the most social spaces on campus," he said, "so in the beginning, the first three to four weeks are tremendously busy." The cafeterias will most likely calm down once students settle in with their schedules and have a better idea of the offerings at each dining hall.
Feeding an extra 80-100 people, according to Rossiter, is not that difficult. Though DDS has not hired any new full-time staff, more freshmen have signed up to work for DDS than in previous years.
Rossiter speculates that crowding may become a problem when the weather gets colder because students will no longer be able to eat outside on the deck of Collis.
In the registrar's office, increased enrollment has had very little impact on registration. "Our days look like they have looked," said Registrar Polly Griffin. Though classes have just started, "things are going very smoothly."
Maintenance crews are also working at a normal pace now that students have settled in. "I didn't hire any additional custodians for the 'tree houses,'" said Woody Eckels, Director of Residential Operations.
According to Eckels, the rush of freshmen hasn't had much effect on custodians' workloads. Aside from extra students living in dorms due to the conversion of some doubles into triples, "in the grand scheme of things, that [doesn't have] a major effect."
"Basically, our facilities have always been overcrowded," said Athletic Facilities Manager Jennifer Coleman. She hasn't noticed any unusual problems so far, but she is less confident about the long term. "I'm sure when it comes to Winter term, when everyone comes into the Kresge Weight Room, things will be much more crowded."
"Nobody wants to go [to the gym] at 11:00 at night," said Coleman. "Everyone wants to go from 3-6 PM."
Many freshmen have no qualms about the size of their class. "I feel very much at home, even though I've only been here a week or so," Vyshali Manivannan '05 said. "Our class is large enough to encourage new meetings and a change of social scenery every so often, but comfortably small enough to fit in with the closeness of the Dartmouth community."
Kiwon Yoo '05 agrees, noting that the class "is big enough to see fresh new faces but small enough to get a sense of community and continuity."
"I don't think you feel [the immensity of the class], except when you are hanging out, said Ratskovskaya. "Then it's the more, the merrier."
