According to Dean of Residential Life Charri Boykin-East, the renovation of James and Stearns, scheduled to begin this summer, displaces approximately 110 incoming students. The Plaza and the Waldorf are the only dormitories that provide a residential setting similar to that offered to most other first-year students. Boykin-East's only other option for first-year housing was singles and two-room triples in Morrow Dormitory, but since most other first-year students will be living in one-room doubles, she chose to house first-years in the modular housing (mods).
Boykin-East believes the change will better serve rising sophomores since in the past two years, the bottom third of each sophomore class had to live in one-room doubles in the mods. "[The change] makes housing more uniform across the classes," she added.
Current first-years are relieved that they will not face the prospect of mod housing. "People have been rather enthused that freshman will have to live here instead of sophomores," said Nzinga Tyehemba '06, the Resident Counselor (RC) in the Plaza.
Some students noted that the structure of the building is not conducive to forming a community. "The architecture of the building doesn't lead to the most communal of settings," Tyhemba said.
Carolyn Koulouris '06 expressed a similar opinion. "I think it will be too long of a hallway for freshmen, so it would make it hard to do things as a floor," she said. "Other halls would be more cohesive for freshmen." Overall, though, Koulouris said she doesn't think that first-year students will suffer from living in the mods.
Next year, each mod will have two RCs, rather than one. "Having two RCs will work very well," Tyehemba said.
Boykin-East believes RCs and upperclass students can help make first-year residents feel comfortable and included, despite the housing crunch. "My hope is that I will work with the RCs in [Y and Z dorms, the new dorms being built where Milliken once stood] to build a big brother/big sister kind of relationship," she said.
Other incoming students will live in the newly renovated North and South Dormitories. First-year students will continue to live in Appleton Hall, Valentine Hall and Pratt Dormitory.
When construction is finished on James and Stearns and Pratt Museum is converted to a first-year dorm, incoming students will live in dormitories on the Freshman Quad. Jed Heneberry '06 believes living on the Quad is ideal for first-years. "I think it'll be a lot better for freshman ... getting to know each other for the first time," he said. In the meantime, students will face this difficulty. "It [will] hurt freshmen not to live on the Quad with their peers," said Debbie Traub '06.
Boykin-East explained that, due to the ongoing dormitory construction, providing appropriate housing is difficult. "While we make that transition it's hard at times to identify decent housing for all students."
Until construction of first-year dormitories is complete, President Anthony Marx wants to ensure incoming students experience a smooth transition into College, despite the housing crunch. "We do work very hard to minimize [transition times]," he said. "I'm amenable to thinking about other things that we might want to do to ensure that this particular class' experience is as positive as possible."