As the Office of Residential Life prepares for the first round of room draw today, it expects students to jump at the chance to claim a spot in one of the campus' newly constructed residence halls.
According to Director of Housing Rachael Class-Giguere, many students have expressed interest in the suites in the newly built Tuck Mall and McLaughlin residence clusters, which will house approximately 25 percent upperclassmen.
"Its not like the buildings are all upperclass. There are a handful of the five-person suites and a few four-person suites," she said.
Class-Giguere said that she hopes students investigate their options by looking at the floor plans and vacancy lists on the office's website.
Even though in most years students come somewhat prepared for room draw with a number of different options, Class-Giguere hopes that students will have an idea of other types of rooms they would like in case they cannot find housing in one of the newly-built suites.
The suites in the Tuck Mall residence cluster will be the only residence hall on campus where five people live together, creating a sticky situation for students who wish to live in one of the five-person suites but are unsure of their availability.
Class-Giguere suggested that students who do not obtain a suite in one of the new buildings try for a four-person room in Massachusetts Row, New Hampshire Hall or Woodward Hall.
"I think a lot of people interested in suites are seniors, so I don't think they'd be interested in doing doubles, even in the Gold Coast," Class-Giguere said.
Class-Giguere is uncertain as to exactly what the preferences of upperclassmen are besides a desire for a suite.
"What we don't know is what's higher on people's lists, the Maxwell Channing-Cox apartments or the five-person suites," she said. "I think we will probably see a lot of back and forth with that on Monday night."
In the past, seniors who did not get apartments have received singles, she said.
"My guess is that all the ones in Tuck Mall will be gone within the senior class, maybe some juniors," Class-Giguere said. "Just because there aren't many of them, I'm guessing that the five person ones will be gone within the seniors."
Class-Giguere said that the McLaughlin cluster has not received as much attention from students as the Tuck Mall residence cluster due to its distance from the heart of campus where people would want to live, she said.
More singles will be available to sophomores than in the past, because of the shift of first year students away from singles, newly built singles and the movement of seniors from singles to five person suites.
"While sophomores are guaranteed housing, it's not like they are guaranteed the type of housing that they want; we are guaranteeing that there will be space for them in the fall," Class-Giguere said.
"I still expect that we are going to see the majority of sophomores in triples and doubles."
Room draw will take place in Alumni Hall this year due to construction in Leede Arena. On Monday night check-in will be at the Top of the Hop, and on Tuesday and Wednesday it will be in front of Alumni Hall.
