According to SHAC member Mike Flood '03, opting out will no longer be necessary. This year will mark the first year in many that the housing office will be able to place everyone in housing before the end of the academic year.
"People will still be able to opt out during the room draw process but we discourage this as these people will just be placed at the bottom of the list," said Flood. "They're just going to be left with housing that other students didn't want."
Opting out came into being as a result of the housing crunch that the College faced in the past. Students, usually rising sophomores, who were dissatisfied with the housing options available to them during room draw could choose to take this option.
"Betsy Marble and I worked really hard to help opt out students in past years to try to get as close to their first preference as possible," said Boykin-East. "It's not true, though, that they always ended up in better housing, although we've been lucky. People can't count on that this time though."
The housing office reserves about 20 rooms every year for transfer students and 12-college exchange students. These rooms, combined with those made available by last-minute decisions by students to study abroad or to take time off from the academic year, formed the rooms available to the approximately 30 to 40 students that chose to opt out per year.
Normally the housing process would not be complete until well into the summer, after the attendance numbers at the College were finalized.
"In past years, when it came down to picking rooms for the bottom half of the freshman class during room draw, a lot of times there weren't any rooms left," said SHAC member Erik DiNardo '03. "That won't be a problem this year since it's almost guaranteed that everyone will know where they are living for next year by April."
Beginning in the the summer of 2002, the College will tear down Milliken Dormitory to clear room for construction on Fields Residence Hall, the new dormitory to be built behind Merrill Science Center. Fields will house the approximately 100 students who will be displaced by the ongoing construction in the Freshman Quad.
This construction will have an effect on student housing as early as the upcoming room draw, set for April 16-18.
The temporary modular housing will consist of two one-floor buildings, each of which will hold 50 students in one-room doubles.
Although members of SHAC admit the modular housing units are not very physically attractive, they maintain that the units are acceptable on the inside.
"Add wheels on them and they really could be trailers," said DiNardo. "They're pretty ugly from the outside, but they're nice on the inside and they've been very popular among students at other colleges.".
SHAC is promoting the location of the modular housing as one of its most positive attributes.
"The location isn't that bad … you're almost on the social quad and they're close to the athletic fields and the gym," said DiNardo. "They shouldn't be as much of a problem as people seem to think."
The loss of rooms as a result of the destruction of Milliken will be more than compensated for by the addition of the modular housing units. More than 50 additional rooms will be available.
"It's really a great year to be a sophomore," said Boykin-East of residential life. "Students might not get the most beautiful rooms in the world, but they will get the peace of mind of knowing where they'll be living and with whom before the end of the school year."
In addition to construction in the Milliken area, renovations will begin on the Freshman Quad this summer. In addition to many other changes, James and Stearns Halls will eventually be torn down and replaced by new freshman dorms.