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Volume CXXXI, Number 23 |
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More beds in lottery; chem-free in demand
JAMES FISHER
ORIENT STAFF
If students return to campus next fall without college housing, it's only
because they were choosy.
That was the message from the Residential Life office this week as students crossed fingers, drew numbers, and picked dorms. Stowe Inn and MacMillan's rooms- buildings recently renovated by the College- added 81 beds to the tally. Last year, exactly that number of sophomores left the lottery process without a bed. The additional rooms were not matched by a rise in students applying for housing. "That number has been pretty consistent," said Director of Residential Life Bob Graves.
The summer of 2001 saw the College scrambling to place the 81 students on its housing waiting list. Residential Life administrators said a wait list for rooms this year would be an option, but not a necessity. "Everybody could get a space," Graves said on Wednesday, before the final lottery last night. "The question is, will they want the space?" This is the second year that students unsatisfied with their options in a lottery can put their names on a waiting list.
(As the Orient went to press late Thursday night, the last lottery was still in progress. Residential Life staffers were not sure if a wait list would be necessary.)
The number of students seeking chem-free housing continued to rise this year. 25 students were left in that lottery after Howard, traditionally a chem-free dorm, was filled. To accommodate students seeking chem-free housing, Residential Life offered lottery spaces in Howell and select triples in Mayflower, in addition to the traditionally chem-free Howard.
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| Keegan Callanan, Colin LeCroy, and Owen Strachan search for a room in the triples and singles lottery on Monday. (Karsten Moran, Bowdoin Orient) |
"Students opted not to take the Howell spaces," Graves said, "which is a little odd... everybody could have had a chem-free space." The Howell rooms were mostly singles and one-room doubles, he said, and students who applied in groups of three and four were reluctant to split up. The three Mayflower triples in the chem-free lottery were filled.
When the chem-free lottery closed, 16 students lacked a room. Last year, only four students were in that position, according to statistics on the Residential Life website.
Graves said he did not expect demand for chem-free housing to drop. "We need to have a discussion about how we guage chem-free in the future," he said.
The college houses will continue to shuffle around next year. Boody residents and their Coleman affiliates voted to move into the renovated MacMillan house on Maine Street. The Boody Street house will become a quiet dorm; Burnett, currently the only quiet dorm on campus, will lose that designation. Graves said he was impressed with the MacMillan reservations. "I think the students will be excited to be over there," he said.
MacMillan's dedication next fall will place all of the college houses except for Ladd directly on Maine Street.