A number of rising sophomores and juniors who did not get their first choices in housing for next year are deeply disappointed with the current housing crunch at Bowdoin. While unlikely to provide solace for the college students who have faired poorly in the housing lottery, the history of the last few decades shows that housing crunches are nothing new.
1950s - 1960s
The first shortages of on-campus housing in Bowdoin's modern era occurred after the end of World War II.
"A lot of people were coming in on the G.I. Bill," Secretary of Development and College Relations John R. Cross '76 said. "The College went from having comparatively few students, to the class of 1950 which was a huge class compared to all the others."
According to Charles C. Calhoun's history of the College, "A Small College in Maine: 200 Years of Bowdon," the end of World War II brought earth-shattering changes to higher education in the United States.
"What had seemed a privilege?a leisurely four years in which to read and write, socialize with one's peers, and discover one's vocation?suddenly emerged as a right...[a]nd it was a right to be enjoyed by all of American society," he wrote.
From a low of about 300 civilian students in 1942, enrollment at Bowdoin leveled off at 750 by 1950. During the 1960s, the College averaged an enrollment of about 1,000 students, according to Calhoun. There are currently 1,666 students enrolled at the College.
Construction of the Senior Center (renamed Coles Tower in 1980) was completed in 1964 adding about an extra 180 beds to the College's on-campus housing.
1970s
In the early 1970s, "I think housing was pretty much guaranteed for everybody" at the College, Cross said.
"My freshman year [1972] the College was renting rooms at the Stowe House Motor Inn, so I think that there was some pressure [to find housing for students] that was not being met particularly well," Cross said. "They did certainly guarantee housing, and there were some rooms that could have been doubles but ended up being triples as a result. They did have that overflow situation."
Interestingly enough, Cross added, "we had a few people actually living in what was the President's House'85 Federal Street?on the top floor. Roger Howell, when he was president, had three or four students living in rooms up there as well. I'm not sure whether that was because of overflow, but it may well have been because of a housing crunch," Cross said.
Pine Street Apartments were completeld in 1973. According to Cross, Pine Street Apartments, along with Brunswick Apartments, Mayflower Apartments, and Harpswell Apartments were the popular choices among many seniors. Although the Senior Center had been constructed for seniors only, by the mid-1970s, fourth-year students were drifting toward other housing options.
1980s
The 1980s prompted budget deficits on the national scale and housing deficits at Bowdoin.
In an Orient article from the late 1980s, Bina Chaddha, a first-year advisor, foresaw the advent of improvements in how the housing lottery?known then as "Room Draw"? was facilitated.
"A computer system may speed things up [in the future]," she said. Chadda was either eerily prescient, or changes in the housing system were executed at a glacial pace: the housing lottery was first computerized in 2004, 15 years after Chadda's 1989 prediction. Until the spring of 2004, each block's number of points?based on seniority?was calculated by hand, according to Lisa Rendall, operations manager of the residential life office.
"The computer system makes the housing lottery a lot easier," said Rendall, who, prior to 2004, calculated each block's number of points herself.
When asked what she thought of the April, 1988 room draw (housing lottery) situation, rising sophomore Kelly Beekman '91 told the Orient, "I'm sittin' pretty." She had lottery number 1002.
1990s
The housing crunch continued in the 1990s. The front page of the April 30, 1993, issue of the Orient trumpeted: "23 Rising sophomores without any campus housing for next year; many feel the College does not care."
According to the article, Doug Ebeling, area coordinator in charge of the housing lottery at the time felt "very badly about the situation for those rising sophomores without housing." He encouraged students not to feel "hopeless" about their situation. Despite his empathetic attitude, students who did not have a place to live in the '93 to '94 academic year were understandably unhappy. "Guiliana Poggio '96 said, 'I think it sucks.' A number of other people in her year share[d] the same sentiment. Jessica Keramas '96 said, voice cracking, 'Upset is an understatement.'"
"Ten years ago the College started to get everyone back onto the campus," Cross said.
According to the Bowdoin College Self-Study of 1996, "Students must make an abrupt transition in their sophomore years, when they find little or no housing available at the center of campus..." The 1996 self-study also notes the "absence of continuity in housing at Bowdoin..."
An April, 1998, Orient editorial, entitled "Sophomores in a bind," lamented that demand for on-campus housing continued to "outstrip the supply," leaving students, especially sophomores, unsatisfied with their options for housing.
"The housing lottery has always been a source of frustration and tension for students," the Orient editorialized. "Few things can more negatively impact a student's academic year than an undesirable living situation. Rising sophomores, in particular have historically had the hardest time in the lottery because upperclassmen get first choice."
A May, 1998 Orient editorial explained it best. "The situation is a simple one: as usual, there are more students on campus than there are beds..."
The situation does not seem to have changed much as Bowdoin enters its 2006-2007 academic year. According to a draft of the 2006 Bowdoin College Self-Study, "With on-campus housing reaching an historic high of almost 95 percent, the College continues to assess its housing needs."