More than half of the bed spaces lost because of the Few Quadrangle renovations planned for the fall semester have been recovered, Residence Life and Housing Services officials said Tuesday.
Of the 438 bed spaces lost, 271 will be made up by moving graduate students off Central Campus to the Swift Avenue Townhouses and increasing the capacity in large rooms on West and Central campuses, said Marijean Williams, director of housing assignments and communications.
RLHS anticipates an additional vacancy of roughly 70 beds, leaving 97 bed spaces unaccounted for because of the renovations, Williams added.
The vacancy rate is an average obtained from previous years' data that accounts for students who change their minds about studying abroad, who decide to take a leave of absence or who were not invited back to the University, Williams said.
"We are currently planning for maximum capacity but anticipate vacancies at the start of the Fall 2008 semester," she wrote in an e-mail.
Williams added that the 97 remaining bed spaces will likely be made up for by the early-release lottery, which allows students in the Class of 2010 to live off-campus, thereby releasing them from their three-year on-campus living contract. In the worst-case scenario, a waitlist for on-campus housing will be created, and priority will be given to rising seniors, Williams said.
"That does not mean we will release 97 students through the early-release lottery," she added. "We will determine that number later this week."
Applications for the early-release lottery were due last Friday, and Williams noted that RLHS received more than 97 applications.
"At this point we will keep room capacities the same from Fall to Spring," she said. "We anticipate using all the Few [Quad] spaces for students returning from study abroad."
She added that RLHS does not know if all 438 bed spaces in Few Quad will be recovered in Spring 2009.
During the renovations, on-campus housing for graduate students will only be provided to 54 first-year, international students, who will be living in the Swift Townhouses off East Campus, Williams said.
There are currently 187 graduate students living on Central Campus, 80 percent of whom are international students, said Stefan Gary, a graduate student in the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences and a representative on the Board of Trustees Committee for Buildings and Grounds.
Crystal Brown, president of the Graduate and Professional Student Council and a third-year law student, said it was good that RLHS recognized the difficulties faced by first-year international students, but added that the transition is equally difficult for all first-year graduate students.
"Most graduate students aren't from the Durham area, and they will have a hard time getting acclimated to the University," Brown said.
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