After three years of housing all sophomores on West Campus, the future of linked housing is up for review. Campus Council will seriously consider next week whether encouraging students to choose housing with their freshman dorm-mates has tangibly benefitted the residential experience.
At the group’s meeting Thursday night, it opened discussion about linking as senior Anthony Vitarelli, president of Campus Council, said even the future of the quad system could be re-evaluated.
“As far as I’m concerned, everything is on the table,” he said.
Linking began as a way to improve the sophomore-year experience by giving housing preference to freshmen who chose to live with their East Campus dorm-mates. Students who wanted to remain in the same quad after sophomore year were also given better status in housing picks.
The theory, Vitarelli said, was to encourage both dorm unity and “meaningful inter-class interaction.” In practice, however, the number of beds available for juniors was limited, and many juniors were forced out of their quads because of space constraints. The number of beds available for men and women each year is also uneven because of selective houses.
The system was also criticized by students in dorms such as Southgate and Randolph, who were linked to Edens—housing many undergraduates considered less desirable than housing on Main West.
Although the University was not necessarily planning on re-evaluating the linking system, limited bed space in quads will require Residence Life and Housing Services to shift the dorm-quad links. The major benefit of the shift is that Southgate, the most remote dorm on East, would no longer link to Edens, said Campus Council Vice President Damjan Denoble, a sophomore. Aycock, Basset and Giles would all link to Edens.
Other linking pairs were not available late Thursday night.
Because the freshman class will grow by about 50 students next year as the Pratt School of Engineering expands, officials expect the bed shortage in certain quads to increase. Also, the majority of entering students will likely be male, further exacerbating the shortage. “What we’re probably looking at is having to do the process every year,” Denoble said.
Campus Council members began the discussion by considering some of the benefits of linking, but they ultimately postponed the discussion until next week when they will begin to form a recommendation for the future of residential life.
“As we try to grapple with the concept of the quad model, we’ll have to think about linking,” senior Katherine Robinson said.
In other business:
Council members agreed that the Spanish benches lack character but they may be more appealing during warmer weather.
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