Students and administrators are moving forward with efforts to address the immediate need for on-campus housing for upperclassmen, while discussing long-term goals to improve the overall housing situation for all classes. While the Board of Trustees is scheduled to discuss the issue formally in February, several committees, including a student housing coalition and a student-faculty housing task force, have convened to formulate plans to build a new dormitory.
The groups hope to develop a comprehensive plan for a new dorm within the next several months, which would include a cost analysis. It will be presented to the board by Trustee Representative Jesse Levey at their February meeting.
"This is not a simple project by any means.... We want the University to know that we realize the housing issue cannot be solved overnight," said Levey, who is heading the student housing coalition. He pointed out that in the past, there were too many proposals in circulation, which confused the issue and impeded progress.
"This year we're going to focus on the student perspective and are currently trying to develop a strategy to see how much administrative involvement is needed," he said.
While all levels of the University, from students to trustees, are now aware that many consider the housing issue of utmost importance, those debating the issue are quick to say that concrete planning remains in its infant stages.
"We are nowhere near the point where someone is saying we have the land and a cost plan for a specific proposal," said Linda Dixon, overseer and secretary to the corporation.
In addition, plans will not fully solidify until the trustees, who would be in charge of finding funds for the project, approve them. "The trustees were merely further informed at their last meeting that the need for more housing is becoming a very serious problem," Dixon said. "They are definitely aware of the subject but not knowledgeable on the details at this point."
Students are expressing increased anxiety over the housing crunch, while at the same time, off-campus rent prices in the Medford and Somerville areas have skyrocketed. Junior Erika Lee was among the many sophomores last year who assumed they would not be eligible for on-campus housing and therefore had to seek off-campus housing options.
"Every year the rent goes up because it's such a monopoly, and living off campus definitely takes away from the college experience," she said.
Administrators hope to design a dorm that will house 150 students, although student representatives speculate that the actual demand is nearly double that number. "I'm very disappointed that they are only pushing for 150 beds," said sophomore Senator Melissa Carson, who sits on the Campus Planning and Development Committee (CPDC). "I'm going to push as hard as I can for them to build as many beds as they conceivably can on whatever piece of land they can find," she said.
The CPDC faces the task of finding a feasible site on which to build the dorm. Vice President of Operations John Roberto said that nine to ten potential locations are being discussed, including the space next to Stratton Hall, uphill near Carmichael, near Hill Hall, and along Talbot Avenue.
"We're looking at the possibility of sites from a campus master plan perspective, so there is a considerable amount of discussion involved," Roberto said. "We want to make sure the building fits well with the rest of campus."
The idea to build two smaller dorms has surfaced, although there is fear that the division may increase building costs and further complicate the effort, according to Dean of Academic Services and Student Affairs Kristine Dillon, who heads the housing task force.
There are also concerns with the time and resource expenditure, as the University is currently facing two large-scale construction projects: the new psychology building and a new music building.
And despite student support for the idea, it is difficult to gauge the precise demand for on-campus housing, as the fluctuating external economy alters rent prices in the surrounding Medford and Somerville areas. The number of juniors who choose to study abroad also complicates the issue, and Dillon said that such factors make the issue a "guessing game."
"There is reason for the trustees to be cautious when approving such a large initiative," Dillon said. "All the pressures today make it clear that students want to stay on campus, but it's hard to sort out which of these are based on external forces of the economy that are out of our control and subject to change."
Dillon said that administrators would feel more comfortable assuring the trustees that there will be a demand of 150 beds, and not 300. There is a great fear of a repeat of the unexpected decrease in demand for on-campus housing that occurred immediately after the construction of South Hall in 1991.
"There were vacancies in South, as rent prices in Medford and Somerville happened to take a downward turn and it became more economical for students to live off campus," she said.
Dillon, however, does not foresee a substantial drop in rent prices in the near future, as prices in Medford and Somerville are also heavily influenced by factors outside of Tufts, such as the recent trend of Harvard and MIT students moving towards Tufts to find housing.
The housing task force would also like to develop a long-term residential program to overcome some of the obstacles associated with generating support for a new dorm. The program would encourage students to live on campus during their upperclassman years at Tufts.
The new dorm could potentially boast more technological advances and a larger number of resident faculty. "A school the quality of Tufts has the opportunity to expand the learning experience outside of the classroom," Dillon said. "We're trying to explain to the higher authorities of the University that we're not just at the mercy of the economy and that building a new dorm is not only a matter of bed spaces."
The recent wave of concern over housing availability was raised to the Board of Trustees last year, when former Trustee Representative Tommy Calvert presented a report on the demand for housing and called for action. Since then, Tufts has instituted a number of measures to mitigate its housing problems; these include the opening of the Office of Off-Campus Housing in July and efforts on the part of the Financial Aid Office to offer more financial support for students who need to move off campus.
Student representatives and administrators directly involved in the new dorm initiative urge students to actively pursue the need for more on-campus housing in order to overcome reservations among upper-level authorities.
"It's really important for students to push for as many beds as possible because the louder the student voice, the higher they can push that number up," Carson said.
