College now has Rooms for Seniors

Construction on the new Visual Arts Center will not begin until June 2009, which means Brewster Hall and the Lodge will not be torn down before next year. All bets are still off after next year. The ORL blitz after the jump.

>From: Residential.Life@Dartmouth.EDU
>To: [redacted]>Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:26:12 -0400
>Subject: All 09’s Now Eligibile for Room Draw!

To All Undergraduate Students,

In February 2008, I sent all undergraduate students a letter outlining changes in housing eligibility for Room Draw that I felt compelled to make due to a decrease in on-campus housing capacity. Although many variables contributed to the decision, a key factor was the anticipated loss of Brewster Hall and The Lodge as undergraduate housing owing to the start of enabling and construction work for the new Visual Arts Center on Lebanon Street. The changes stated that:

~ A limited number of 09’s would be able to select rooms at Room Draw and rising senior students were encouraged to seek off campus housing.
~ Fifth year Thayer BE students were not eligible for on-campus housing.
~ “Active older” students would not be able to participate in Room Draw but would be eligible for fall housing by applying through the waitlist.

Yesterday I learned that the Visual Arts Center project, while still moving forward, would not require the loss of Brewster Hall or The Lodge for the 2008-2009 academic year. These facilities will be available for undergraduate housing until June 15, 2009.

As a result of this information and the stellar work that Greek Letter organizations and Affinity Programs have done in filling their locations, and because of the high number of applications for the East Wheelock program, it is not necessary to limit the number of eligible rising seniors (09’s) who may participate in Room Draw.

Despite these encouraging signals, our capacity to accommodate undergraduates is still somewhat smaller than in recent years. Therefore, I am leaving in place our decisions regarding fifth year Thayer BE and “active older” students. I do expect to have a waitlist, as we have every year. Students on the waitlist will be housed during the summer after other students who selected rooms at Room Draw change their plans for the fall, thus freeing up space. Any rising sophomores (2011’s) who are on the waitlist are guaranteed housing, provided they apply by the June 2, 2008 deadline.

Originally Brewster was to be closed after the fall term and only students here for the fall term were allowed to select this location. This is no longer the case. Brewster and The Lodge will accommodate students for the full academic year and both residence halls will be available at Room Draw. Both communities will have UGAs. Brewster contains all singles and The Lodge provides one room doubles with full bathrooms. Updated floor plans for both locations will be available before the end of the day today on the ORL website.

I know that many of you have been concerned, angry and/or frustrated at the changes outlined in my earlier memo and some of you have already made plans based on that notification. I am sharing this new information as quickly as we learned about it ourselves. Though it may come too late to alleviate some of the anxiety already caused, I hope that for most this comes as welcome news.

For those who decided to locate housing off-campus, thank you. Our housing will still only accommodate ninety percent of the undergraduates enrolled, so I still expect approximately 380-400 students to reside off campus, which is normal.

If you have questions about the Room Draw process, please contact the staff in the Undergraduate Housing Office in the basement of North Mass: Rachael Class-Giguere, Murray MacDonald and Gwen Williams. A PDF of this memo is available at http://www.dartmouth.edu/~orl/announcement.pdf.

Sincerely,
Martin W. Redman
Dean of Residential Life