Michelle Hadley ‘09, Associate Managing Editor

Published Thursday, April 27, 2006

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Kate Consroe ’09 was one of many students left without a room, after the chaos of this year’s room selection came to an end on April 20. “I had three friends I was going to do a quad with, and our best number was 140,” she explained. “And they ran out of quads before 140—I think around 100 or so.” Consroe, whose own number was in the 400s, was no longer able to room with the friend whose num- ber was 140: “They ran out of rooms completely before 400. So, I went unassigned.”

Because Residential Life used Banner—which failed to work as they had anticipated for room selection this year, Associate Dean and Director of Residential Life Michael Malone did not have an accurate number on-hand of how many students were not assigned to rooms during room selection. Still, he said that “the number is clearly larger than it was last year, but not nearly as large as it was four years ago.”

“I’m not concerned,” said Malone. Vice President of Campus Operations Nick Stamos, who echoed this sentiment, said the administration anticipated having too few rooms on campus “since we’re losing about 30 some beds in the houses on North College due to construction on the new science facility.”

Malone pointed to a number of other factors involved in the room crunch students are experiencing. “We have seniors who want to be on campus,” he said. “Students are picking rooms who won’t be here in the fall.” Yet, according to Malone, the major reason for this year’s room crunch is that “we’re tearing down housing, but we haven’t built new housing.”

Both Malone and Stamos insisted that increased enrollment does not signifi- cantly contribute to the lack of rooms. “The freshmen class will stay the same, around 600,” Stamos said. “Nothing has changed dramatically between this year and last year.”

Malone, who was confident he would solve the situation, said, “I’m going to get back most of the beds I lost on North College Street from the construction [of the new science facility), and I’ll get back the rest through students who are transferring, dropping out or going abroad at the last minute.”

Stamos also pointed to future projects, saying, “We have a number of plans.” Among them is the creation of a “new Treehouse on Louther across Cherry Street.” According to Stamos, the college is also considering renting space down- town and is “talking to a developer about a downtown space.” Stamos, who will be meeting with Malone and the new Dean of Students April Vari ’82 to discuss these plans, said, “Next year, we will have a clearer direction to what we’re going to do.”

Malone stressed that the college is “not putting anyone in the Comfort Suites or any hotel.” He is working to make everyone happy. “For rising sophomores, I will be able to assign them with their one chosen roommate,” he said, though he added that groups of four or six students may be divided.

While Residential Life has yet to find rooms for unassigned students, Malone said, “By the end of June, I should have this worked out.” Due to the construction, Malone was unable to map out where new rooms would be. “In the past years where I’ve lost a building, I’ve known where we’re picking up a building,” said Malone.

Consroe, like Stamos and Malone, does not seem too concerned about being unassigned: “They kept everyone who didn’t get a room after and explained what would happen. They said they are going to buy some more houses somewhere and offer them to juniors and seniors who are currently in the dorms, and then they will assign us to whatever spaces are opened up.” She is excited because “if no seniors or juniors want the houses, then we (the unassigned rising sophomores) could get houses.”

Still, she is not entirely happy with the situation. “I want to know where I’m going to live, and I’d like to know now,” she said. Yenarae Lee ’09, who went unassigned with her roommates during room selection, said that while they were not surprised that they did not get a room, they “were surprised at the fact that it would take housing until the end of June to tell [them] where [they] would be living.”