Changes in on-campus housing policies this year were key in shaping the housing selection process, which was applauded by the Office of Residential Life, as Tufts was able to meet the demand of nearly all students who sought campus housing last week.
Only a handful of rising junior females could not be given rooms, while all rising junior males who wanted to live on campus were accommodated, according to Assistant Director of Residential Life Lorraine Toppi. There were 166 female and 121 male beds available to rising juniors, and only 14 students in search of singles were forced into doubles.
The number of rooms available to next year's juniors was higher than usual, according to Toppi, because the University anticipates next year's incoming class to be relatively small in size. The elimination of the fall-only housing selection process and the limit on the number of singles allotted to rising sophomores were two changes that helped this year's lottery run smoothly.
"For the last two years, admissions has been very kind in bringing in normal, average size classes, which has allowed me the luxury to figure in more beds for the other students," Toppi said. The reduced size of the class of 2005 is partially due to Tufts' housing crunch, which is expected to ease if admissions numbers are kept relatively manageable.
Though the two policy changes caused some anxiety among students, the outcome of last week's lottery left many students pleasantly surprised. The elimination of fall-only housing did not pose a significant problem, despite initial apprehension among rising juniors who will be on campus in the fall but plan to go abroad in the spring.
Although the original plan was to limit the number of sophomore singles to 20 rooms in Wren and Haskell halls, ResLife made available all singles in Wren and Haskell for rising sophomores as well as three singles in Bush Hall. This increased the number of singles allotted to sophomores from 20 to 64.
The decision was made because there were fewer sophomore housing exemption applications this year, which suggests that more rising sophomores than usual intend to remain on campus. Toppi was also unsure as to how many rising juniors would choose to live on campus.
"I thought it would be best to give more rooms to cover" the sophomores, Toppi said. "Singles are also very flexible, so I could always throw the ones that weren't taken back into the regular pool."
But the decreased number of singles for next year's sophomores did affect a number of males of the class of 2004. Twenty rising sophomore males are currently on the waitlist for singles.
"It amazes me that folks were coming in asking for singles when they knew from the beginning that there were going to be few singles to start with," Toppi said.
All seniors seeking on-campus housing were granted rooms. Because seniors are typically drawn to housing units with kitchens, smaller units like the suites in Hillsides and Latin Way, as well as small houses such as 12 Dearborn Road and 176 Curtis Street, are usually the first to go. Rooms in West, Stratton, and Wilson House were as popular this year as in the past.
Toppi was supportive of the ResLife decision to leave the juniors' selection process to the last day, which allowed her office to consolidate remaining rooms, and offer a small group of doubles in Haskell to rising juniors.
"I was happy about that," Toppi said. "Just as there are sophomores who would prefer singles, there are some juniors who are happy with doubles."
Toppi said that the success of this year's housing lottery was made possible by a combination of ResLife's response to the housing crunch and an effort by Admissions to reduce the number of accepted students.
"A good chunk of kids did secure apartments off campus, which left spaces for folks who really felt they needed to be on campus," Toppi said.
The success of next year's juniors who needed fall-only housing in obtaining a room on campus was a relief for students and ResLife. "I was glad that on a whole, I didn't leave any students in a hopeless state of despair in not getting housing," Toppi said.
Fall-only housing was eliminated after major renovations in Latin Way towers were completed last fall. The idea behind fall-only housing came forth because the renovations required more than one summer to complete, which left ResLife with a perfect opportunity to concentrate juniors going abroad in the spring in buildings which could be renovated during the spring semester and following summer.
With the completion of these renovations, Toppi does not foresee any major changes in housing policy. "We're just back down to regular upkeep now, which in a way is a shame because we had a momentum going," she said.
But ResLife has not solved the difficulty of distributing on-campus housing given each year's fluctuations in admissions numbers and other external factors.
"It's not a science," she said. "It's definitely a guessing game."
