"We did our best homework and fully thought we wouldn't have a wait list. And at that I am disappointed," Dean of Residential Life Martin Redman said. "We can guarantee sophomores housing but still have a waitlist."
An unexpected number of juniors and seniors selected on-campus housing during room draw, forcing sophomores who did not receive housing and wish to live on campus to submit their names for placement on the waitlist.
"We thought of holding certain rooms for sophomores that wouldn't be available," Director of Housing Rachael Class-Giguere said. "I am sure after this we will have a lot of conversations about how much of this [upperclassmen] interest is an anomaly and how much of it is a wave of the future."
Redman said he became nervous about room draw two weeks ago because of the number of "apartment for rent" signs he saw in town.
"At this time of year you never see [that many signs]," Redman said. "We kind of had an inkling something was afoot, but didn't know for sure until we got here."
ORL expected to start off Fall term with 200 to 220 empty beds, despite the closures of the Lodge, Hitchcock and Hinman Halls. Despite its unanticipated waitlist, ORL expects to have at least 50 empty beds at the start of Fall term because some students who went through room draw ultimately will decide to live off campus or make changes to their Dartmouth Plans.
On Tuesday morning, ORL opened North Hall for next fall because there were very few singles still available after Monday night's room draw. It also changed 20 of the 22 rooms designated for either gender to male-only rooms in order to accommodate the expected 150 men at Wednesday night's room draw.
"We did expect an increase in interest in living on campus and in the new buildings," Class-Giguere said. "I had figured that we would probably see between seniors and juniors an extra 50 people on campus. I didn't expect 200, 220 people on campus."
Redman said he suspects that the combination of new buildings and ORL's lenient cancellation policy attracted an influx of juniors and seniors to room draw.
"For me, there is a big glitch in the program that we need to think through with some students and that is the whole concept of a cancellation policy," Redman said of ORL's requirement that students cancel housing by Aug. 1. "It looks like a number of students took rooms to give themselves a safe bet before they went out and got an apartment, and are going to cancel after the fact."
The final night of room draw ended with six female triple rooms still available because the remaining women were in search of double rooms.
While ORL cannot guarantee housing to members of the Classes of 2007 or 2008 who did not go through room draw, it remains confident they will all still receive housing, Class-Giguere said.
Because many students were without enough roommates to select double or triple rooms, Class-Giguere encouraged students who were in search of a roommate, or without a plan, to congregate at the question and answer table to discuss possible living arrangements.
Rachel Larocca '09 came to room draw with a friend, planning on choosing a double room, but then realized that she would not receive one. After her friend spotted a female student who lived on her floor, they joined together to select an available triple room.
"We went to check out the new room, and then we split paths and then I realized that I didn't know her name," Larocca said. "I am living with a girl who I don't know but seems nice."
