Amid economic downturn and a poor housing market, Dartmouth has had little difficulty meeting the increasing demands for on-campus housing, according to director of College housing Rachael Class-Giguere. This bucks the national trend as many colleges and universities across the country are facing an increasing demand by students for on-campus housing as off-campus options become less desirable, according to an article in the Boston Globe Monday.
Dartmouth requires all incoming students to live on campus for their first year, while upperclassmen are not guaranteed housing. Eighty-five percent of students live in residential halls, and the other 15 percent live in other College-owned properties or off campus, she said.
To accommodate all members of the freshmen class, the Office of Residential Life reserves more rooms than it expects to need for first-year students.
This procedure began following the College's fear in 2001 that it would be unable to accommodate the number of upperclassmen who expected to live on campus due to the large size of the entering Class of 2005, according to Class-Giguere.
ORL calculates the number of students it expects to matriculate based on standard rates of student deferral or matriculation at other institutions after being taken off of a waitlist. Using these numbers in 2001, ORL set aside 30-40 extra beds to accommodate exchange and transfer students, but about 100 more students matriculated than expected, creating an on-campus housing shortage, Class-Giguere said.
To accommodate demand, ORL built the modular Tree Houses, which were located in the River residential cluster. The Tree Houses were removed last year.
"Dartmouth is different than other schools, since we require that all first-years live on campus," Class-Giguere said. "At other schools, housing is not a requirement on campus. It's a first-come, first-serve for everyone."
Class-Giguere said ORL has a general idea of how large the incoming class will be by room draw each May and alters how many rooms are available during room draw accordingly.
ORL dislikes inflating the size of the upperclassmen waitlist, she added, as the larger the waitlist becomes, the more difficult it is for ORL to match students with rooms and to honor roommate requests, she said.
All the women on the waitlist for this fall have received housing on campus, and the last group of men on the waitlist should have confirmed on-campus housing within the next few weeks, according to Class-Giguere.
Class-Giguere said she expects ORL to be at full capacity for on-campus housing this fall.
The construction of new residential halls, including Fahey-McLane and the McLaughlin residential cluster, allows the College to continue to meet the on-campus housing demand.
Last spring, Dean of Residential Life Martin Redman notified the student body that ORL would only be able to house 400 seniors in the 2008-2009 academic year.
He asked seniors to look for alternative housing for the coming year.
The change was not well received by many seniors, Class-Giguere said, because most students are accustomed to being placed in on-campus housing, if they so desire.
Class-Giguere explained that the housing shortage occurred independently of the size of the incoming Class of 2012.
The loss of beds is a short-term consequence of the College's housing development plans, she said.
While the long-term benefit of new residential halls is allowing 90 percent of students to live on campus, in the short-term, the new buildings allow for older buildings like Hitchcock and New Hampshire residence halls to close for renovations.
Current economic conditions have not yet affected demand for on-campus housing, Class-Giguere said. On-campus room and board increased by $100 to about $2,155 for the upcoming academic year, which Class-Giguere said was a standard increase.
While a larger percentage of students choose to live on campus now than four years ago, Class-Giguere said she believes this trend reflects the new housing options on campus more than the local housing market.
