After being away from campus for three months on summer break, I drove up West Wheelock Street and noticed an unusual abundance of green-netted fences. I turned to my left and realized something was off — Collis Center and Robinson Hall were almost completely obstructed from view.
Everyone remembers where they were when they first heard the news: Collis porch, the beloved campus hangout outside Collis, would be shut down this fall due to ongoing construction. For Simone Wuttke ’27, that realization came during a phone call with a friend. Wuttke first started regularly hanging out on Collis porch last spring and was disappointed to learn that she wouldn’t be able to enjoy one of her favorite spots this term.
“I would sit [on Collis porch] with my friends and drink my Collis smoothie — it was awesome,” Wuttke said. “While [the new tables outside the Class of 1953 Commons] provide a good location and secondary outdoor eating spot, I feel like it still doesn't have the same vibes as Collis porch … I will mourn it until it returns.”
While renovations are a common sight on any college campus, construction at Dartmouth has taken over several central locations. Along with the ongoing overhaul of the Hopkins Center for the Arts, which began in December 2022, the early stages of a housing expansion on West Wheelock Street have meant a longer walk to class or to the gym for some, while others are dealing with the challenges of the housing shortage.
“Pretty much all of campus just feels very cluttered,” Feranmi Ayanlade ’27 said.
One of the most notable makeovers is the complete overhaul of the Fayerweathers, a freshman dorm cluster in South House colloquially known as “The Fayes,” since June of this year. Dylan Galvez ’26, who lived in the Fayes his freshman year, lamented the loss of what he believes to be an “essential” first-year experience.
“It’s so sad to see that [the] ’28s don’t get to experience the Fayes at all, in all of their glory and infamy,” Galvez said. “It makes sense why they’re doing it — it wasn’t a very nice dorm objectively — I just don’t like seeing it get gutted.”
Other than the loss of buzzing social spaces, like the Fayes and Collis porch, the renovation has displaced some students from previously-occupied housing clusters. Ayanlade, who lived in South Fayerweather Hall his freshman year, has been placed in Summit on Juniper, an apartment complex located approximately 10 minutes from campus in Lebanon.
“The communication [from the College] was that they would never force anyone [to live at] Summit,” Ayanlade said. “Then, after a couple emails, the language changed, saying that if spaces didn't open up, they would put people in Summit. So that was kind of a shock for me.”
Ayanlade “ended up getting a quadruple room in Summit” with people he had “never met before” and expressed discontent with housing changes impacted by campus renovations.
“The construction… just became a logistical nightmare for me in terms of housing,” Ayanlade said. “I don’t think they put enough thought into what would happen as they were renovating … And I wish they would get the construction done more quickly than how it’s been going.”
For some students, these disruptions have also impacted their experience inside the classroom. According to Eliza Robinson ’28, construction on the east side of campus has interrupted her German class in Dartmouth Hall, which is adjacent to the Fayerweather Hall construction sites.
“It’s really hard for the professor to lecture because every single time that anyone tries to talk they’re jackhammering [near] the back of Dartmouth Hall,” she said. “No one could focus, and the teacher just kept apologizing.”
Additionally, this summer, the College closed the one-way road in front of Dartmouth Hall as well as another road in front of the Class of 1953 Commons, better known as Foco, limiting the routes students, faculty and staff could take to get around campus.
“It was a little tedious if you were driving around,” Galvez said. “You couldn’t just take a right and do a loop around the Green. You had to go all the way up to Anonymous Hall and loop around [the] BEMA. It was pretty inconvenient.”
Although construction has caused challenges across campus, Galvez said the renovations haven’t affected his “day-to-day” activities. Galvez said he feels grateful that one of his other favorite spots on campus — Courtyard Cafe, the dining option inside the Hopkins Center — remained intact.
“I’m just glad that even though the [Hopkins Center] is under construction, they left the food court open,” Galvez said. “ If that place wasn’t open, I don't know what I’d be doing.”
