Administration muddled by housing crunch

This year's housing crunch marks a continuation of a number of trends and the emergence of some new ones that beg attention from policy-makers. The plight of Trumbull College's junior class has become this year's source of anxiety. As of Tues., Mar. 4, it seemed as though 20 juniors would be forced to live off campus. The crisis fizzled when,with some ingenuity, Dean of Administrative Affairs John R. Meeske adopted a plan to renovate the fifth floor of Van-derbilt Hall on Old Campus. The plan would convert existing sextets with their aesthetically pleasing but functionally useless nooks and crannies into septets and octets. Against their will, annexed Berkeley juniors will inhabit the space. To accommodate the newcomers, the incoming classes of colleges that presently inhabit Vanderbilt will be commensurately smaller next year. While a compromise was reached this year, a question arises: how much longer will mere rearrangement overcome the very realistic possibility of a shortage of bricks and mortar?

The roots of the housing problem spread through many areas, not the least of which is the Office of Admissions. Throughout the last two decades, the office has witnessed a trend: not only is the number of people accepting admission increasing, but the target enrollment has increased, from 5,100 in the early 1980s to over 5,200 in the late 1990s, and much of this increase has taken place with no corresponding increase of available on-campus living space. Complicating the issue even more are the fluctuations in class size. For years, large departing classes were replaced by large incoming classes, and small senior classes by small freshmen classes. When upper-class class sizes were relatively small, housing problems would work themselves out with students moving off campus. But given the two-year, on-campus living requirement, there would be a housing crunch when the lower classes were large. Dean of Undergraduate Admissions and Financial Aid Richard H. Shaw said that overcrowding reached its worst point for the Class of 2000, "when over 1,400 freshpersons said `yes.'"

The ongoing process of college renovations makes the housing issue even more difficult to resovle. With the recent renovations done to Berkeley and Branford, a new trend is emerging: better living quarters generate higher demand to live on campus, fewer juniors and seniors opt to live off-campus, and a housing crunch ensues. "When you renovate [a dorm], more people want to live in it," Berkeley College Dean Laurence H. Winnie said, speaking from experience. Winnie went on to explain, "It is a feature of renovations that you get higher levels of on-campus living."

Yet it would be a misrepresentation to portray the renovations as a detriment to student life or to paint a bleak picture of the future of on campus housing. A number of positive trends and the reversal of some negative ones are causes for optimism, or at least stress reduction. Renovations improve the communal, close-knit environment unique to Yale's residential college life. "There are more interactions among the students [after the renovations]," Winnie said. He continued, "The atmosphere is lively, and the dining hall has become a great meeting place. It's good for college life." Even though annexing is certainly better than the alternative of kicking people off campus, some may still retort that annexing defeats the purpose of the residential college system. Yet some people choose to view annex housing as an extension of the residential college. "Durfee will develop its own sense of community," Trumbull Housing Committee Chair Brad Rosenberg, TC '02 predicted. "It's only half a block away—not a big deal."

Yale is also beginning to cut back on the size of its incoming class and to reduce flunctuations in its size. "I think our ultimate goal is to have a stable number which is less driven by variations in graduating classes," Shaw said. Yale College Dean Richard Brodhead, BR '68, GRD '72, has been working toward this goal. "Dean Brodhead appealed to the president and Provost to even up class size," Meeske said. The Class of 2003 contained 1,371 students, but now, in order to break the boom-and-bust cycle, a mid-sized class of 1,350 is the new target. Thus, the Class of 2004 will be smaller than the classes in previous years. The long-term goal is to reduce the target of enrollment from 5,225 to 5,175. Yale calculates that this decrease will reduce revenue by $1.5 million, but it will result in manageable class sizes that reduce the burden on the residential colleges.

The renovations and admission policy changes will look to effect an overall improvement in the quality of life at Yale, an improvement involving a number of balancing acts—as renovations proceed, the planners and architects must delicately weigh the quality of design against the need to optimize occupancy. "We want good housing with the maximum spaces; we don't want overcrowding," Meeske said. Brodhead clarified Yale's philosophy. "As we think about the proper size for the college, we have to balance our desire to share the opportunity of this place in a fairly generous way with our need to protect the quality of life for the students who come here," he said.

For the second straight year, Yale has resorted to resolve the housing crunch. As Meeske commented, "Each college gives a little, evenly sharing the burden of overenrollment. We would all prefer to house all students in residential colleges, but it's simply not possible given the available space." But Meeske admits that the situation is not ideal. It is difficult to accurately predict the numbers of upper- classmen who move off campus, or the number who take leaves of absence or terms abroad, and withdrawals each year. But the fact remains that with renovations continuing, the crunch is bound to get worse. With an eye toward the completion of Saybrook's renovations next year, Meeske is taking a preemptive strike: he has already notified Yale College Housing Council that additional annexes will be needed.

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