Undergraduates may not be quite as crowded as they expected when they return to campus in the fall.
The number of expanded rooms will decrease from a projected 97 to 50, said Bill Burig, assistant dean of student development. Expanded rooms are rooms that are converted from singles to doubles or from doubles to triples in order to meet space requirements.
During the 1993-94 school year, 76 rooms were expanded, according to figures provided by the Office of Residential Life. Although no rooms were expanded in 1994-95 due to the construction of new dorms on East Campus, the closing of Hanes House for the fall meant that the University had to expand to accommodate 73 extra upperclassmen on West, North and Central Campuses. The residential plan unanimously approved by the Board of Trustees last December calls for all freshmen to be placed on East Campus.
Overcrowding was reduced somewhat by distributing students throughout empty bed spaces on the other three campuses. One way this was accomplished was by allowing students in block housing to decide if they would rather remain in their blocks and risk overcrowding, or leave their blocks and increase their chances of being placed in a more desirable and less crowded location.
All blocks that requested not to be broken up were kept together, Burig said.
One wait-listed student who volunteered to have his block broken up expressed mixed emotions about the housing assignment process.
"I'm not happy with the outcome, but I guess I can understand it," said Trinity junior Tom Philip, who will be living in Burton with his roommate. "Given the tremendous amount of change this year, I'd have to say it was pretty fair. I know that with this much of a catastrophic change, not everyone could be pleased."
In the spring, many undergraduates expressed concern with the large number of seniors placed on the wait list for housing.
All wait-listed seniors have been placed "in locations of their highest preferences, which in most cases was Main West Campus," Burig said. No seniors were placed on North Campus, which will consist almost entirely of independent sophomores.
"No one [above sophomore year] was assigned to North who didn't want to be there," he said.
Students have also questioned the role of seniority for independents in the new residential system. In response to these concerns, Burig said that independents will be able to remain in the same dorm, or, if they would rather move elsewhere in the quad, will have first priority to do so over anyone else outside of that quad.
Distribution within dorms will return to the method used in previous years--one-third sophomores, one-third juniors and one-third seniors.
Burig said he hoped that some of the dissatisfaction expressed in the spring will decrease when students return to campus in the fall.
"I'm very optimistic," he said. "I think people will come to realize that some of the furor that was raised was extremely short-lived and, quite frankly, some of it was unnecessary. Change is difficult, particularly in a pretty traditional-type setting as Duke, but change doesn't necessarily have to be negative."
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