Hoya Staff Writer Friday, August 25, 2006

Due to an unexpectedly high yield among accepted students in the spring, dozens of new students have been housed in dormitories that have not usually been reserved for freshmen housing – a trend that may force more juniors and seniors off campus in future years. While most freshmen are assigned to the same four dormitories, more than 60 have been assigned to dorm rooms in Village C East, which houses upperclassmen. Of the 60, most of those will live on the eighth and ninth floors, though a handful have been housed on other floors composed mostly for upperclassmen. Housing lists from Village C East show that that at least a dozen freshmen will be residing on upperclassmen floors in that building, although Karen Frank, vice president for facilities and student housing, said that this number was a “half dozen at most.” Housing records also indicate that several freshmen living in Village C East will be without a freshman roommate: one student is sharing a double with a sophomore, while another is rooming with a junior. Many of these rooming assignments have been made in the past two weeks, though most freshmen received their housing assignments in early August. “They’re all assigned,” Frank said, referring to the placement of incoming freshmen in dorms. To make room for freshmen in Village C East, a number of upperclassmen were asked to switch their housing assignments. “Some students, with roommates, voluntarily moved from a floor in Village C East to other locations so that first-year students could be housed together,” Frank said. “No housing was cancelled.” Colin Brewer (SFS ’07) a resident assistant on the ninth floor of Village C East, said that his floor, though filled with upperclassmen only weeks ago, now has only three other residents that are not freshmen. There are currently 1,594 students enrolled in the class of 2010, nearly 70 more than the entering class of 2009. “This is by far the largest freshman class ever,” Charles Deacon, dean of undergraduate admissions, said. Deacon said that the university planned to have between 1,550-1,580 incoming freshmen, but the incoming class exceeds this cap by more than a dozen students because of a particularly high yield rate among accepted students. The yield rate rose to 49 percent this year, up from 47 percent a year ago. Deacon said that 1,580 students would have been “the optimal number of freshmen.” Because of the unusually high yield rate, Deacon said that hardly any prospective students were admitted off of the waitlist this spring, and a small handful of students who applied last winter were granted deferred admission into the class of 2011 due to space constraints in this year’s freshman class. “Essentially, the entire waitlist was told `no’,” he said. Deacon said that the freshman class will likely lose close to 10 students in upcoming weeks, as has been customary for first-year classes in recent years as students fail to arrive to campus. Frank said that freshmen living on non-freshman floors will be given the option to move into traditional freshman residences as spaces become available. According to the ten-year development plan that the D.C. Board of Zoning Adjustment approved in the spring of 2005, the university plans to continue increasing enrollment by several hundred students by 2010, which could force freshmen to occupy more dormitories traditionally reserved for upperclassmen, further hampering the prospects for students to receive on-campus housing for more than the two guaranteed years, Frank said. “We’ll take more floors in Village C East,” Frank said. “That means fewer juniors or seniors living on campus.” Brewer, the Village C East R.A., said that he plans to incorporate his freshmen residents into Harbin and Village C West activities to give them the “typical freshman experience.”I’m ready to deal with whatever,” he said.