Some high rise residents to be evicted in fall

More than 100 students will not be able to retain their rooms next year due to the new college house program. Until this year, students living in the high rises were practically assured they would be able to retain their rooms as long as they attended the University. But next fall, many floors will lack familiar faces. As University officials try to find homes for freshmen and new residential programs in the high rises, occupants of about a dozen floors throughout the three buildings have been notified that they will not be able to retain their apartments next year. The Department of Academic Programs and Residence Life has told affected students that it will make an effort to find them identical apartments elsewhere in the high rises, APRL Director Chris Dennis said. As part of the new college house program, the University will reorganize its residences into 12 houses with enhanced programming. The new houses will feature additional faculty members and more living-learning programs. Significant numbers of freshmen will also move into the formerly upperclass dormitories for the first time. In order to accommodate these additional faculty members and students, more than 100 high rise residents will have to move next fall. The residents, who occupy the 10th and 11th floors in High Rise North, the seventh and eighth floors in High Rise East and the 11th and 12th floors in High Rise South, were notified by mail. Also, part of the the 23rd floor of each of the high rises will be turned into faculty housing. The 12th floor in HRN and the 14th floor in HRE will house living-learning programs. Current residents may keep their apartments on these floors, but only if they join the programs. Although no past participants of the Community Service Living-Learning Program -- which is being relocated from the Castle on 36th Street and Locust Walk -- have agreed to relocate to the high rises, residents of the 12th floor of HRN have already been told they will have to move to make room for the program. This will also be the case for residents of the 14th floor of HRE, where the new Ancient Studies/University Museum Residential Program will be housed starting in the fall. Since each college house will have a house dean, a faculty master and one or more faculty fellows living in the house -- in addition to several graduate associates and resident advisers -- apartments for the faculty members will be constructed in the 23rd floors of all three high rises. House deans will reside in the middle of the building, and the GAs will have apartments in those floors that do not have RAs. Apartments for both house deans and GAs will be converted from former student apartments. Two floors in each high rise have been designated as freshman housing. Half of the apartments on each of those floors will house freshmen. Upperclassmen in those rooms will also be forced to move out. Those floors will become part of the designated first-year clusters, integrating the freshmen with upperclassmen while allowing them to live close together, Dennis said. Although APRL promised to relocate the affected residents, many said they were upset that they were not given the option of retaining their apartments. College junior Dara Gruen, who lives in a four-bedroom apartment on the 12th floor of HRN, said she was "upset" with the short notice. "It was sort of a shock," she said. "They knew about this. They could have told us sooner in case we wanted to look off campus." And Andre Pontual, a College sophomore who lives on the 10th floor of HRS, said he was "disappointed" that the University took away an option that all other students have. Other students said they understood the need to find room for freshmen and new programs. One 10th-floor resident of HRN said she received a notification letter, adding that the situation is "understandable because freshmen need somewhere to live." Dennis insisted that APRL would do its best to find comparable housing for students who are forced to move. "We think that the relocations won't be all that disruptive for people choosing to retain," he said. And the letter students received from Eleanor Rupsis, the associate director of occupancy administration, said that her office will "try to assign you to the same type of room in your building, if available." Some students might, however, be assigned to "another building" if no other accommodation can be made, Dennis said. But Gruen was skeptical that APRL will be able to find her a four-bedroom apartment with the advantages of her current 12th-floor apartment, located in the middle of the building. She said she doesn't "want to be on the 24th floor nor the first floor."