In April 1990, Trumbull College juniors staged a sleep-out on the Old Campus lawn to protest the shortage of on-campus housing. That year, 100 Trumbull juniors requested to live on campus; however, even with additional annex housing, there were only enough beds for 53 of them. They reminisced about their first year at Yale - when they had a bed to sleep in.
In the early 1990s, the Yale Administration was concerned that undergraduates might miss out on the residential college experience. Five years ago, editorials lambasted the Office of Admissions for allowing too many freshmen to matriculate. Back then, there was no room to house them all. But now, newspaper editorials lament the purported "off-campus exodus" and students question whether the era of the residential college system has passed.
A glance at Yale's housing options - limited by the entrenched residential college system - reveals the nature of 1990s housing woes. There are simply not enough beds to house everyone. "If 500 students didn't live off campus each year, we wouldn't know what to do with them," Dean of Yale College Richard Brodhead, BR '68, GRD '72, said. According to Brodhead, Yale anticipates that 10 to 11 percent of the student body will live off-campus each year. Yet for the 1995-1996 academic year, approximately 17 percent of the undergraduate population opted to leave the residential college system - almost double the amount expected by Yale.
While Yale prides itself on the unique environment created by the residential-college system, the Administration's position on off-campus living may be surprising to some students. "I think it's a healthy thing to live off campus for a year," Trumbull College Master Harry Adams, PC '48, said. "Students are extremely welcome to live off campus," Brodhead said. "If the move off-campus were to dissociate oneself from the rich community at Yale, it is a short-sighted decision. For most people that is not the case. Many people live off campus and still eat in the dining halls, play intramural sports, socialize on campus, and are involved with the Yale community."
Alan Kenney, JE '67, director of Yale University Dining Halls (YUDH), was somewhat less positive about students moving off. "The University wants off-campus students to stay in touch with the residential colleges," Kenney said. He cited the recent changes in the meal plan as the University's effort to keep students on campus. However, Brodhead insists that the 14-meal plan was not due to an unexpectedly high number of students moving off-campus. Instead, he attributed the changes to past complaints about the inflexibility of the meal plan. He added, "We should use the time when more students are moving off campus to repair what needs to be fixed at Yale."
Even more controversial than these modifications to the meal plan is the recent policy mandating that sophomores live on campus. Brodhead said that the policy was enacted "so that people know what they're choosing. Once it is wildly fashionable to live off campus, people might choose it without experiencing the residential college system." In response to widespread criticism, Dean of Student Affairs Betty Trachtenberg defended the action: "At no point did we wish to be thought of as social engineers."
There have been other, less publicized efforts by the Administration to keep students on campus. Brodhead said, "We put in a great deal of effort last year to find terrific people to be college masters." In the past year, new masters have been appointed to Calhoun, Ezra Stiles, Morse, and Silliman Colleges. Also, last semester, the Saybrook College Master and Dean sent a joint letter to all Saybrook students asking them to consider the many advantages of living on campus before making a housing decision for the next year. The letter listed many of the facilities in Saybrook, and concluded, "We believe that your experience at Yale revolves around the residential college system and we want you to remain in our community. The college is the sum of our students; those who live off campus make it harder for those who remain to get to know you and share in your talents, perspectives, social life, and more."
The familiar reasons for moving off are are quite convincing: more space, a flexible eating schedule, better food, and a cheaper overall cost of living.
For some people, the dining halls fail to provide adequate service. "The food is terrible," Dan Krems, BR '98, said, citing the on-campus food as "a major factor" in his decision whether to move off campus next year. Often, as Krems pointed out, simple failures outweigh major strong points. "When you're sitting in the dining hall, surrounded by exciting, interesting people, and dinner sucks, you're not thinking, 'Wow, these are terribly exciting, interesting people.' You're thinking, 'This food sucks.'"
According to students who live off campus, even more important than the food quality are the time restrictions that dining halls place on one's eating habits. "It's important to have my own schedule, not to have to eat between 5:00 and 7:00 p.m.," Alison Markovitz, SY '97, said. Having the additional independence and being self-sufficient are motiviating factors for moving off campus as well. "I have control over what I'm spending," Markovitz said. "It's not one lump sum."
Furthermore, the cost of room and board has increased dramatically over the past few years. As a result, many students have found that it makes sense to move off campus for financial reasons. "Money was a big reason [to move off campus]," Naomi Sevilla, TC '96, said. "The meal plan was too expensive for what you were getting." The present cost of the 14- and 21-meal plans is $3,100, and off-campus Yalies have not found it difficult to subsist on a substantially smaller food budget off campus.
Beyond the inconveniences posed by an inflexible meal plan and expensive room and board, the primary reason for many students living off-campus is comfort. Laura Smith, BK '97, said, "With the little bit more that it's expensive, the quality of life skyrockets [when you move off-campus]." Adams clearly understands this rationale: "You can get more square footage for your money off campus than on campus." Liz Ross, BK '97, who moved off campus after her freshman year, said that her main reason for living off campus was the housing available to most Berkeley sophomores: "Rooms the size of a closet, with a bunkbed, guaranteed."
Obviously, living off campus is not right for everyone: 83 percent of Yale students still live on campus. Life at Yale is not perfect, but many of the advantages of living in the residential colleges continue to keep Yalies on campus, as they have for years. Danny Goldman, BR '98, said, "As it is now, I worry about my classes. If I moved off, I'd be worrying about my classes, my house, my food, my safety."
What do people who live off campus miss about college life? College life itself is sometimes the answer. "It would be nice to live in a more collegiate atmosphere," Ross said, despite the fact that her apartment is in the Taft, known to some as "Taft College": 65 percent of the residents are Yale students. "The residential college system provides you with a different group of friends, special people that you wouldn't get to know otherwise. That's its intention and it does a good job of it," Betsy Hagmann, BR '97, said.
From the Taft Apartments, the Warner Building, and University Towers, to houses rented by sports teams, singing groups, or fraternities, many options exist. Yet some may be startled to find that it is difficult to find a good deal - or any deal at all. Some nearby apartment buildings allow two-year leases to be handed down from student to student. This allows a sports team, for example, to be housed in a certain set of apartments from year to year, keeping out other potential tenants. This procedure has been curtailed at some residences, but such exclusivity is still common. "If you didn't know someone, you couldn't get an apartment," Hagmann said.
In the Warner Building, fines are imposed to keep students in line with the expectations of the management. There is a lock-out fee of $50; a $200 fine for rollerblading in the building; and a $300 fine for having a party that spills out into the hall. In the Taft, parties are not allowed after 11:00 p.m., and strict noise limitations apply. Two Yale students received a notice after having a party that announced that they would be evicted without warning the next time a similar infringement occurred. "They treat us like kids," Smith said.
And managers don't make the transition to off-campus life any easier. In the Warner Building and Taft Apartments, many residents leave the buildings after a year because they are dissatisfied with the way they are treated. Because neither of the residences is rent controlled, prices are subject to spontaneous increases. For example, when the Taft recently changed management, rents increased as much as $300 a month.
For the past five years, the percentage of Yale students living off campus has increased steadily, from 519 students in 1990 to 924 students this year. "We went in a short space of time from being overcrowded to having lots of free space," Brodhead said. Trachtenberg links the rapid five-year movement off campus to the fluctuation in New Haven rents: "When rents dropped, people thought they were getting better deals, and Yale security [in off-campus areas] increased at the same time." Brodhead said, "We hope that New Haven prospers...but the result is that students will move back on campus as rents increase." For now, the "exodus" appears more like a temporary vacation.
Copyright 1995, The Yale Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
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