By Samuel Rubenfeld
The University’s Office of Residential Programs has announced a change in available housing assignments to resident undergraduate and graduate students for the coming year. Students returning to on-campus housing are confused, worried about losing their room assignments and angry.
The changes stem from a desire from incoming students to live in more “integrated” housing, meaning they will live either amongst upperclassmen, or exclusively with other first-year students, but on main campus grounds, said University officials.
“We are looking to build a community,” said Peter Libman, the dean of students.
In addition to the Netherlands, first-year students will exclusively live in three of 14 houses in Colonial Square, and in New Complex, which only hosted graduate students. Many double-rooms and triple-rooms in the high-rise towers are reserved for first-year students as well. Incomming first-year students will have the option of living with other first year students, or to live with upperclassmen.
These rooms and buildings will be reserved for new first-year students permanently.
“It leaves upperclassmen no other choice than to get off-campus housing,” said Danielle Stein, a junior drama major who lives in Providence House, which is one of the Colonial Square houses now reserved for freshman. “It’s ridiculous because everyone that wants to rent a house has to do it now, and we were essentially given a week’s notice to get a house.”
Upperclassmen will have housing reserved for them, however. The other 11 houses in Colonial Square, along with the suite-style rooms in Nassau/Suffolk Hall will be open exclusively to sophomores, juniors and seniors.
Graduate students will live in the new graduate residence building, which will be completed by the summer, Libman said.
Resident assistants and building residential directors have held informational meetings with their resident students to inform them of the changes made, said Lynda O’Malley, an associate dean of students.
But Stein said there was no meeting for residents in her building. “I only found out from a letter slid under my door,” she said.
Students displaced by the changes will go to a “relocation lottery,” which will take place March 11. The special relocation lottery “is designated for those students who have been informed by the Office of Residential Programs that they cannot return to their current room,” according to a brochure issued to every student in their “Room Selection” packet, which resident assistants issue to their residents.
The brochure instructs students to “select a space similar to the one from which you are being removed.” But it adds: “You cannot use your relocated status to choose a single room. If you wish to select a single space, you must use your regular lottery information.”
The goal is to create communities that continue to live with each other throughout the collegiate experience, O’Malley said “Studies have shown that students who live, study and learn together do better, and have higher retention rates,” she said. “It increases student satisfaction.”
The changes also reflect the closure of the Twin Oaks Apartment Complex, which was located on University property, but off of the main campus grounds. The two buildings are up for sale, but they are yet to be sold, Libman said.
As a result of the changes, the University can house more students next year. According to records provided by the Dean of Students office, there are currently 4,096 current resident students, and the University projects to house 4,223 students next academic year, including graduate students.
“We started this year with 57 students on a waitlist, and we had several vacancies in Twin Oaks,” Libman said. “Those 57 students did not want Twin Oaks.”
The changes result in more housing opportunities for first-year students. This year, according to the Dean of Students office, 1,371 first-year students live in on-campus housing. Next year, the office predicts 1,450 first-year students to live on-campus.
For this academic year, already “we’ve got the highest percent of first-year housing ever,” O’Malley said.
The Dean’s office predicts a slight decrease in undergraduate students returning to campus housing, with 2,326 undergraduates currently living in on-campus housing, and 2,324 expected next year.
By creating housing for specific constituencies of students, the Office of Residential Programs wishes to tailor programs to the needs of those students. “With students with like issues living together, we can better tailor our programming and our RA staff. Obviously, a freshman’s needs are going to be different then a graduating senior’s,” O’Malley said when announcing the changes to the Student Government Association on Feb. 26.
Many students were shocked and angry when they heard about the changes in housing arrangements. “They’re giving freshman way too much of a selection,” said Christopher Angelini, a sophomore film major. “This is a futile attempt to prevent freshman from transferring out of Hofstra. The higher quality facilities aren’t going to the upperclassman, which isn’t fair.”
Stein felt that this was the second time she was being relocated. As a freshman, Stein lived in Netherlands North, and she had to move onto main campus. She moved to New York House in Colonial Square for her sophomore year, and then to Providence for this academic year. Stein and her two suite-mates are now in the process of looking for a house to rent off-campus, but they have yet to find one.
“We’re concerned about every student’s satisfaction,” Libman said. “We’re making some changes, and this is a transition year for us. There are a lot of people unhappy they aren’t going to be able to stay in their room, but the gains of the changes far outweigh any negatives. The cost is a few students unable to return to their rooms, but the gain is to create programs for specific students.”
Staff Writer Valerie Gauman Lucas contributed reporting to this story.