ORL Foresees an On-Campus Housing Shortage

ORL (the Office of Residential Life) mailed out a letter from Dean Redman today concerning a potential housing shortage next year. First among the students affected are five-year Thayer students and ‘super seniors’, neither will be able to apply for any on-campus housing. Because of planned demolitions, ORL also anticipates only being able to house 675 seniors next year. This total includes CFS housing. In the letter Redman said that this is about one hundred fewer seniors than has been typical in the last few years; he also was confident that the off-campus housing options are sufficient enough to absorb this change. Two thoughts:

1. The timing of the letter has caused some complaint. I am unfamiliar with the off-campus housing market, but from what I’ve been told students who want decent housing need to start looking about a year ahead of time.
2. Potentially more troubling for the College than the annoyance of some seniors, however, is the annoyance of seniors who publicly accuse the College of not being able to house them because of a priority on graduate education. One of the residence halls already destroyed (Hinman Hall), was destroyed to make room for the Tuck School Living and Learning Center—a residence hall for grad students. Of course, this will never be an issue if enough 09’s are able to easily find off-campus housing for next year. Yet it is a bit of a gamble on the administration’s part; this is precisely the sort of thing a petition candidate could point to if he wanted to make a point about the administration’s priorities

The Daily D’s article can be found here.