Food, clothing and shelter -- life's basic necessities -- cannot be fully guaranteed to some Dartmouth students who are struggling to find roofs over their heads for the upcoming Fall term.
A number of members of the Class of 2007 are still waiting to receive a room assignment this summer and have been assigned to the primary or "on-time" waitlist.
"At the moment, there are 85 to 90 students on the primary waitlist who for the most part are '07s," Dean of Residential Life Martin Redman said.
These students received unfavorable numbers that prevented them from participating in Room Draw, but they applied to be placed on the waitlist by the May 31 deadline.
"I believe my number was 4,330, but I didn't think that it was that bad," Jared Cato '07 said. "Apparently it is in the last 60, but I'm not really concerned because the administrators say that they never had any problems housing the ones registered on time in the past."
Students facing this issue every year usually find solutions on campus, since other students' D-plans can change as much as their majors, creating extra beds for people on the waitlist.
Some sophomores on the waitlist are pulled into rooms with extra beds. "I was 10 from the bottom in Room Draw, so Dartmouth put me on the waitlist for housing," Mike Guzman '06 said of his experience last Fall term. "Lance Kramer ['06] got a one-room double in Topliff at Room Draw, but he didn't have a roommate at the beginning of the term. ORL contacted him with my name and I eventually moved in."
Beyond the primary waitlist, a "late waitlist" exists, comprised of a few unfortunate students who either missed Room Draw or changed their residency plans for Fall term at the last minute.
"I had a God-awful priority number, and I got the waitlist form past the deadline," Joseph Hilgard '07 said. "I have just been told that I probably won't even get housing if I'm not even on the regular waitlist. I'll probably rent a place off-campus."
ORL doesn't even consider housing students such as Hilgard until after everyone on the primary waitlist has been guaranteed a room on campus.
"There are about 20 to 25 later applicants. The late list applies to students even after the deadline sometime in late June," Redman said. "We're pretty up front with these students and tell them that they need to be looking for housing on their own."
ORL recently blitzed undergraduates, who are officially enrolled for the Fall term, to find any possible last minute D-Plan changes that would open up rooms to waitlisted members. Within the first five minutes, seven students quickly responded to confirm that they cancelled their plans to remain on campus in the fall, Redman said.
"People usually don't notify us of their D-Plan changes. They've usually made their plans a long time ago and forget to tell us about them." Redman said. "Sometimes the room charge motivates them to finally call, especially when mom and dad assume the student has already taken care of it but have received a $17,000 bill in the mail."
While ORL often witnesses these unexpected changes in students' residential plans, they cannot always provide housing at the last minute.
"The D-Plan is a nightmare from a housing perspective. It is intended to create a balance within the College's enrolment pattern from term to term," Redman said. "I think when the D-Plan stuff works, it's fine, but it seems like they change it whenever they want."
The College has dealt with housing problems since it instituted the D-Plan in the early 1970s in response to the undergraduate population surge that took place when Dartmouth became co-educational.
More recently, the College rapidly assembled the Treehouses, located near the Connecticut River, to house upperclassmen devoid of a room due to an increase of 70 students in the incoming Class of 2005.
The College rarely experiences emergency housing situations such as in Fall 2001, so students shouldn't expect new dorms anytime soon.
"Now there really is no growth in the number of undergraduates. The real issue is the D-Plan changes such as 'My father got ill,' 'I'm not going to Spain anymore,' or 'a great internship opportunity came along,'" Redman said.
Nevertheless, the College is planning to build new dormitories.
"We've been actively engaged with architectural engineers in creating housing for 500 students in buildings north of Maynard Street and Tuck Mall for the 2006-2007 academic year," Redman said.
Despite these plans, housing still will not be guaranteed, according to Redman.
"Students often forget that the College only guarantees housing to first-year, transfer and exchange students," Redman said. "While people's plans change, deadlines are deadlines, and after a while it becomes a physical inability."
