The temporary housing will consist of two buildings, each of which will hold 50 students in one-room doubles and will also contain a lounge.
According to Dean of Students Ben Lieber, the temporary housing will most likely be located on the site of the old tennis courts on the field behind Merrill Science Center.
A third structure will be constructed near the temporary housing, but it will be a permanent dorm located either at the site of Milliken or somewhere else in the Social Quad area.
The mod housing is necessary because of extensive plans to renovate the College's freshman and upperclass residential housing in upcoming years.
In addition to the construction of temporary housing and a new dorm, the plans include the eventual demolition of Milliken and the replacement of James and Stearns Halls.
The Pratt Geology building will be renovated and infrastructure improvements will be made to campus electricity, gas and water systems.
The infrastructural improvements will call for extensive work on the freshmen quad, but the majority of the work is scheduled to occur over the summer in an attempt to minimize the impact during the academic year. Construction will begin in the summer, and the College hopes it has phased the construction to limit the impact on campus activities.
"The temporary dorms will continue to be used as other dorms are taken out of service in order to renovate them," said Lieber. "We're going to be tearing down or renovating a series of dorms, and we're going to need places to put displaced students."
Lieber also speculated on the popularity of the dorms which will most likely house rising sophomores at the College.
"They're by no means lavish, but they'll be okay," said Lieber. "Similar kinds of dorms have been used at Middlebury College and they remained part of campus housing for a long time because students liked them."
In addition to Middlebury, several other schools have used temporary housing either as a stopgap or as a means to supplement housing capacity during dorm construction and renovation. Both Yale and Princeton Universities have adopted similar measures in past years. Boston University was forced to resort to creative measures in order to alleviate a recent housing shortage, using houses and apartments as supplemental housing.
Students had mixed reactions to the plans. Katy Kennedy '05 said that she was pleased that there would be more housing opportunities, but expressed caution. "I'm worried that the modular housing might not be comparable to the current dorms, but at least we know they'll be clean," she said.
Other students indicated that the new construction would have a minimal effect on their outlook on housing for next year.
"I'd rather not live in a trailer, but I really don't care that much. It's just not a big deal," said Emily Callahan '05.