Thirteen students started Fall term living in study lounges converted into makeshift dormitory rooms by Office of Residential Life administrators scrambling to cope with a campus housing shortage.
Students will move out of their temporary rooms when the housing office finds rooms left vacant by students who decided not to live on campus or did not show up for Fall term.
By yesterday 10 housing contracts were cancelled, leaving only three students confined to temporary rooms.
Associate Dean of Residential Life Bud Beatty said he expects ORL will find permanent homes for the remaining students by the end of next week.
"I'm sure no one is happy in a temporary space, but at least they are in a space, not sleeping in their cars," Beatty said.
The 13 students put in temporary housing were the last names on a waiting list that had more than 370 people on it at the beginning of summer. An additional 84 students who applied late for fall housing were told in July that the College would not be able to give them rooms.
The College does not guarantee housing to all upperclass students, but ORL decided in the beginning of the summer to try to house the entire waiting list, according to Lynn Rosenblum, the housing assignments administrator.
According to Beatty, one reason for the housing crunch is the increase in the number of freshmen and transfer students, both of which are guaranteed on-campus housing.
The Class of 1997 has about 20 more students than the Class of 1996, and there are about five more transfer students than last year, according to ORL figures.
Five dormitory rooms previously used to house undergraduates were converted for use by graduate students living in the dormitories as part of the new Graduate Students-in-Residence program.
And Beatty said more students than usual applied for housing.
The long waiting list "is a fall phenomenon it doesn't happen in the winter or spring when we have plenty of open rooms," Beatty said.
Rosenblum said ORL is investigating ways to prod students to inform the housing office earlier if they plan to cancel their fall term housing contracts.
She said there were about 200 fewer wait-listed students last year, but 70 more late housing requests.
"There's been a lot of discussion ... We're moving ahead very quickly on our biggest investment, which is computerization of the process," Beatty said.
Computerizing the housing application process would let ORL tell students their room assignments earlier in the summer, or possibly even in the spring, Rosenblum said.
Meanwhile, students assigned to temporary rooms are trying to make the best of their situation.
ORL furnished the temporary rooms with a desk, chairs, beds and closets and installed computer network connections.
Beatty said the temporary rooms, which were originally dorm rooms before they were converted into lounges, are "nice spaces."
But the temporary nature of some of the rooms is evident. A double shared by Andy Komrowksi '96 and Nathan Severson '96 in the basement of Topliff Hall has a McDonald's banner for a partition between the two rooms. And none of the rooms have phones.
Komrowski said he is satisfied with his room, but overall, he is not happy with his predicament. "We shouldn't be in this situation," he said. "The College should know better than to get in this situation."
Pablo Barrutia '96, who is living in a spacious triple in the study lounge in North Fayerweather Hall, said he was "upset the school didn't see the increased student size coming. I guess it is difficult for them, there's no real way of knowing."
But David Leone '96 said he was so happy with his converted study lounge in Smith Hall that he wanted to stay. ORL told him he would have to move.
"It's better than my room last year," Leone said. "It's a one-room double, but it's huge and it's got everything but a phone."
