In a report submitted last week to the steering committee on student life, the Office of Residential Life asserted the need for more dorm rooms, facility improvements and additional space for kitchens, lounges and study rooms.
The report called for construction of up to 1,072 new beds and several new residence halls in order to "decompress" existing dorms, provide necessary life and safety improvements and create room for kitchen, lounge and study space.
According to Dean of Residential Life Martin Redman, the Board of Trustees requested that ORL complete a bed count in College dormitories as its first undertaking and propose changes to the system to accommodate all student housing requests.
In addition, ORL is continuing to study other possible changes to residential life at Dartmouth, such as all-freshmen dorms and alternative living arrangements during Sophomore Summer.
According to Redman, the current changes are aimed at decreasing the number of students living off-campus by making the on-campus experience a more attractive one.
The report allows for only 10 percent of those enrolled to live in off-campus, non-College affiliated housing. Last year about 12 to 13 percent of students resided in such buildings.
"Whether the numbers are 12 or 15 percent, not all of those students wanted to be off-campus," Redman said.
According to Redman, a number of students living off-campus would have preferred to live on-campus but pursued other options due to limited on-campus housing.
The 10 percent was a target based on how many students ORL deemed "would desire and benefit" from such living arrangements, Redman said.
The number of those living in off-campus facilities and those on FSPs or LSAs are subtracted from the targeted enrollment each term of 4,020 students, which leaves a current bed deficiency of 264.
However, the number of needed beds grows to 320 in anticipation of losing space to life and safety improvements such as new stairwells and sprinkler systems. Addition beds will also be lost as the College seeks to decompress existing dorms -- converting doubles into singles in the River and Choates residence halls, for instance.
Redman said the report minimally aims to create a study lounge on every floor of almost every dorm, and a kitchen on every other floor, which according to the ORL report would take away another 142 beds.
The bed deficiency escalates again with plans to convert dorm rooms into apartments housing eight live-in faculty members or Residential Life staff, Redman said.
According to the ORL report, two options also exist to significantly alter the living situation in the Choates and River clusters, further increasing the need for more beds.
The first option is to decompress both dorms to alleviate overcrowding, which would require 148 additional beds. A more comprehensive plan would replace the two clusters with new dorms, creating a bed deficiency of 576 beds for a grand total of 1,076 beds necessary.
Regardless which option is exercised to resolve the current and projected bed deficiency, the majority of structures housing those beds will need to be built.
The average price tag for new construction is $100,000 per bed, Redman said.
"I will have to assume that this operation will have to ask the College for money, and the College [would need] a capital campaign. We can't borrow that money," Redman said.
The report targets an enrollment of 4,020 students, which is a high-end estimate based on historical data from a five-year period, Redman said.
But the challenge of estimating the number of students enrolled each term is made more difficult for ORL as students change their D-Plans frequently.
This year, 100 students made changes to their D-Plan from spring to fall term.
