Residential changes already being planned

Although administrators anticipate that the first stages of implementation of the new "residential community" vision for on-campus living will not begin until fall of 1998, they are already imagining changes to residential living that will affect students and faculty. Last week's release of the Biddison Hier and Brownlee reports outlined programmatic and structural changes to campus residences in order to facilitate the system of 16 "residential communities" of 400-500 students each, while allowing students a choice of living options. "The aim? is to construct a program which gives students what they say they want," Provost Stanley Chodorow said. A stated goal of the changes is to encourage an additional 10-12 percent of undergraduates to remain in campus dormitories. Administrators expect a 95 percent occupancy rate under the new system -- up from the current 88 percent occupancy. Chodorow stressed that a heavy emphasis will be placed on encouraging more sophomores to live on campus. "It is our wish that the vast majority of sophomores live in the residences," he said, adding that it is too early to determine if mandating that all sophomores remain on campus is a possibility. Residential Faculty Chairperson and Van Pelt Faculty Master Al Filreis expressed confidence that programmatic and structural changes will attract a large percentage of the sophomore class, citing Biddison Hier's finding that 86 percent of undergraduates would consider living in new or renovated on-campus housing. Construction of new residences -- including apartment-style housing in Superblock -- would depend on students expressing interest in remaining on campus, Chodorow said. "The system is intended to bring more students to campus," he said. "The increase is possible if we provide the right kinds of living arrangements." Proposed renovations include conversions of existing room types into more "desirable" ones, to encourage more upperclassmen to retain rooms. Many students currently move off-campus because of a lack of community experience in campus dormitories, according to College sophomore Rachael Goldfarb, who contributed to the Brownlee report, headed by Art History Professor David Brownlee. "The lack of community and the lack of programming and resources is clearly a major component in why people would want to live off-campus," Goldfarb said. The residential communities vision also includes fraternity and sorority houses, even though Greek houses have not historically been considered a part of University housing, Chodorow said. InterFraternity Council President and College junior Matt Baker said the University lifted a moratorium on University funding for Greek construction last October, enabling the Greek system to become "a part of the University's residential planning." In addition, a major component of the "residential communities" system includes the increased involvement of faculty in residential programming. Each of the 16 communities will house a faculty master, other professors and a resident dean. Administrators said they do not anticipate any difficulties attracting more faculty to campus. Currently, 26 residential faculty live in the six college houses and five first-year houses. Filreis noted that several faculty apply to live in the residences each year -- and that although no room exists for additional faculty to live on campus next year, six faculty members have expressed interest in Faculty Fellow positions. Also, Brownlee said the University has a "strong tradition" of attracting faculty into the houses. The next step for the residential reprogramming involves laying out long-term plans -- including a timetable for implementation of the structural and programmatic initiatives.