Residence Life and Housing Services officials confirmed Tuesday that they will be able to accommodate on West Campus 39 freshman women of the 55 who were left without housing Sunday.
Officials said Monday that 19 freshman women would be assigned housing on Central Campus. That leaves 16 students who will be forced off West.
Four freshman men are relocating at the request of RLHS to provide more bed space for females, and RLHS is still negotiating with two other men.
"We're continuing to work the situation," said Eddie Hull, dean of residence life and executive director of housing services. "[But] we have a number of things in the air right now, and it's a very fluid situation."
In order to create more bed space, RLHS will convert 16 special-needs rooms and 20 unselected male rooms to female living sections, Hull said Monday, noting that an unassigned triple room in a female section will provide three more beds.
RLHS sent an e-mail Tuesday to unhoused female freshmen explaining the new process of room assignment. Pairs and blocks of women will be contacted in lottery number order with a list of available rooms, and they will respond with their room preferences. The process is expected to take several days, officials said.
Students affected by the housing situation said they were frustrated because they thought RLHS should have anticipated the shortage of rooms on West and acted on it earlier.
"I just feel like they don't know what they are doing," said freshman Nina Rodriguez, who is currently without a room assignment.
Rodriguez said she is unwilling to live on Central, and RLHS told her mother Sunday that sophomores would not be relocated to Central from West.
The decision to allow rising sophomores to live on Central was not made until the following day, Hull explained. RLHS officials noted that rising sophomores will not be forced to live on Central.
Although University policy states that all undergraduate students are required to live on campus for three years, Hull said the policy depends on the availability of space and can change when something extraordinary happens, like the renovation of Few Quadrangle.
E-mails asking the male students to relocate offered the possible incentive of being able to live in the newly renovated Few Quad in Spring 2009. The same offer is guaranteed to any female sophomores living on Central, Hull said.
"I guess this is their idea of trying to make up for [making us move]," said freshman Pat Lang, one of the male students asked to surrender his assignment on West. "It's just a feeling of powerlessness [because] there's nothing we can do. We have to abide by it, no matter how unfair it seems."
Lang said RLHS forced him and his roommate to choose between selecting another room on West, living on Central and entering a summer re-assignment process. He noted that he and his roommate decided to relocate to a room in Crowell Quadrangle.
Freshman Paul Tran, another student who was asked to relocate, said he and his roommate are opting to live on Central, though they are not happy about being separated from their block.
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