Because of this year's imbalance of students on campus between the fall and spring, many juniors currently abroad who requested doubles for the spring will not get their top housing choices on return.
The Office of Student Records predicts that 12 more students will live on campus in the spring semester than do so currently. According to Director of Institutional Research and Registrar Christine Cote, imbalances have been larger in the past, but this year, campus housing can not accommodate so many students.
The housing crunch for the spring semester can be attributed to a number of factors. Although the College added East and West Halls this year, Hyde and Appleton are still under construction and unusable. The strain this year is also due to changes in upperclassman housing requests. Classes have gotten progressively larger, and in past years, more and more upperclassmen have been electing to live on campus, according to Cote.
Forty-one more students went abroad this fall than will this spring, according to Director of Off-Campus Study Stephen Hall. The Off-Campus Study Office, he said, tries to get more students to go abroad in the fall to offset the winter departure of "December completers," who graduate after the fall semester.
"I was aiming to have about 15 more [students] away in the fall than the spring," he said.
But, in part because of foreign schools' schedules, more students usually choose to go abroad in the spring, Hall said.
This fall, 165 students are abroad, and Hall estimates that 124 students will go abroad this spring. Last year, 125 students went abroad in the fall, while 131 students went abroad in the spring.
According to Cote, 17 students will be graduating this December. Eleven additional students will be on leave this spring for medical and personal reasons, she said.
Residential Life emailed the almost two-dozen students requesting doubles on Friday, December 2 and told them to email Res Life back with their prioritization of four housing choices by Saturday at noon.
The most popular choice, according to Res Life Operations Manager Lisa Rendall, was living as a triple in a Brunswick Apartment double. The second most popular choice was to live in one of three available rooms in first-year dorms (one each in Coleman, East, and Moore). The third most popular option was living in a one room double in Stowe Inn. No student selected a Chamberlain double as his or her first choice.
Res Life announced housing assignments on Tuesday afternoon.
Jennifer Xu '07, studying in Beijing, chose a first-year dorm more out of process of elimination than positive preference.
"I did not want to live with a stranger in Brunswick apartments, Chamberlain doubles are notorious for being uncomfortably small, and Stowe Inn is inconvenient since it is so far away from campus," she said.
"I can't say I'm too thrilled," she said.
Matthew Chadwick '07 will also be living in a first-year dorm next semester, though he listed a converted triple in Brunswick Apartments as his first choice. His main gripe was the lack of time Res Life gave students to consider their revised options.
"It wouldn't have been a problem had they notified students of the housing crunch prior to 48 hours before assignments," he said.
Chadwick, who is currently studying in Italy, also felt that Res Life misled students into thinking that their housing assignments were secure.
"My roommate, Walker Ellis ['07], had been up at school a week earlier, and Res Life seemed to reassure him that we would be all set in getting a Brunswick Apartment, so we weren't too concerned. Turns out we should have been," Chadwick said.
According to Director of Res Life Kim Pacelli, "about a half-dozen" Brunswick apartments are available for the spring. She noted, though, that housing is not assured for juniors.
"We don't guarantee housing for juniors and seniors," Pacelli said. "That being said, I am committed to providing housing for juniors who are coming back in the spring."
Pacelli said that students who did not choose doubles had better luck.
"In the case of quads, we had just enough spaces to place students with their group of friends and didn't need the specific guidance and advice from them," she said. "We were short one triple and have been working with the group of affected students to identify a space for them."
Pacelli also refuted that Res Life alerted students about the housing crunch late.
"This scenario of tight housing for the spring semester hasn't been a secret, and we've been talking with students all semester as they've been inquiring about their assignments for the spring," she said. "We hold out on making assignments until as late in the fall semester as we can because it permits us the greatest flexibility in knowing the available spaces as students take unplanned leaves."
Although many more students chose to go abroad in the fall than the spring this school year, Hall said that the Off-Campus Study Office will still encourage students to go abroad in the fall.
"We think that the spring semester will continue to be the more popular choice for Bowdoin students," he said.
Hall attributed the large number of students going abroad in the fall this year to several factors. He admitted that the office had a part in influencing such decisions.
However, he added, "We will very rarely say to a student, 'you can't go the semester of your choice.' We might say that if we get a late application."
Hall also noted, "Students like to go away when their friends are going."
Pacelli recognized that the ongoing construction played a part in the housing crunch and will continue to do so. Coleman and Moore Halls will be renovated next fall, with Winthrop and Maine Halls scheduled for the following spring.
Pacelli said that she anticipates that housing will be tight next year, and hopes that this spring's crisis will not be repeated.
"Next year we'll be looking to improve communication with the Class of 2008 so that we can have more notice as students' plans change and have a more accurate picture of the space that is available in the spring semester," she said.