As Dickinson nears spring break, the college will have “about 340 students… arriving in March,” said Amanda George, associate dean & director of Residence Life and Housing. George Stroud, vice president for Student Life and dean of Students, estimates that for the latter part of the semester, there will be roughly 1,000 students on campus with the addition of upperclassmen.

According to George, “Students arriving in March participated in a housing lottery a few weeks ago, where they were able to choose their housing.” Most apartments are still open for upperclassmen, although there are still other opportunities for upperclassmen who want to live on campus. A portion of juniors and seniors coming in the second half of the semester petitioned to live in dorm buildings rather than apartments, said Stroud. 

George said upperclassmen who participated in this housing lottery process could “choose any available room, so some juniors and seniors did choose to live in Drayer and Adams.” For students already approved for the whole semester, they will not have to switch dorms, but for some who were recently approved for the whole semester, “their current housing assignment was chosen by other students during the lottery,” said George. In this situation, George said the school will be working with the students to reassign them come March.

Ariel Levin-Antila ’21, will be moving into the Goodyear building for the second half of the semester on March 20. With regards to some upperclassmen being placed into first and second-year dorms, Levin-Antila said, “I think it must be frustrating for upperclassmen to be in a freshman dorm. Especially with the communal bathrooms and kitchen, I can see why people would be wary of living there in a pandemic.” 

Additionally, she said that the current situation for the second-half of the semester “makes me wish we still had off-campus housing as an option.” She believes Dickinson is doing the best they can with the information available, but does  “wish we got information communicated to us in a more timely and transparent manner.”

A point of concern for her is the lack of information regarding seniors. “Like what will graduation look like, will we have a senior week?” said Levin-Antila.

Although it was not the senior year she imagined, Levin-Antila said she is “grateful for these last few weeks to gain closure on campus.”