Sacrilicious

Required housing worsens crunch

Dean of Student Affairs Betty Trachtenberg said in the Thurs., Apr. 6 issue of the Yale Daily News that she opposes reversing the rule requiring sophomores to live on campus. "There's no good reason to abandon that rule," she said. Perhaps Trachtenberg missed the events of the previous week. For the second straight year, attracted by a newly renovated college (among other factors), the number of upperclassmen wanting to live on campus increased. Meanwhile, many sophomores with no desire to stay on campus were nevertheless required to do so. And, for the second straight year, only a flurry of last-minute juggling averted having to force students who wanted to be a part of campus life to live off campus.

SARAH ENGLAND/YH

Berkeley College sophomores met on Sat., Apr. 1, to discuss being annexed for two years in a row, and to consider the possibility that there wouldn't be enough rooms for all those who wanted to live on campus. On Tues., Apr. 4, Dean of Administrative Affairs John Meeske, JE '74, informed 20 of 89 rising Trumbull juniors who wanted to live on campus that they might not be able to. That same night, at the Jonathan Edwards' Class of 2002 room draw, six rising juniors who had expected to live together the following year in a Durfee sextet were told to reconfigure into two groups of three—JE had just lost one of its Durfee sextets. The next day, on Wed., Apr. 5, Meeske announced that Berkeley rising juniors would be annexed to Vanderbilt instead of Durfee. This move took the Berkeley students from an annex space directly across from their college to a building across Old Campus.

Once again, a crisis was averted—but barely. And while Meeske did an impressive job of playing musical room allocations, the solution came at a price to students. Even though no one was technically forced off campus, this was possible only because some students decided to move off campus after learning of the housing shuffle. Meeske, who devises housing arrangements for Old Campus, described the process as analogous to the question of which came first, the chicken or the egg. "Students can't commit to live on campus until they know the specifics of their housing arrangements," "and vice versa," Meeske said.

In practice, this means that students who want to contribute to residential college life may decide to move off campus before room draw occurs. This happened last year in Calhoun—when 20 juniors were told they would be annexed, they decided to move off campus instead. The give-and-take between Yale and students Meeske describes creates anxiety that hits campus-wide, more than just those who are annexed. The last-minute uncertainty and changes force students to spend extra time and emotional energy on what should be a painless process. Not to mention the fact that scrapping and reforming housing plans can put great strain on friendships.

Even students who have yet to matriculate are affected. Meeske said that Yale is aiming for an incoming class of 1,350 students—20 fewer than in the Class of 2003. But this is, in actuality, an even larger drop than the numbers appear to indicate. Yale usually creates target class sizes based on the incoming size of the graduating class. The Class of 2000 entered Yale with 1,407 students. So Yale is, essentially, cutting 57 spots. This hurts those 57 students who will not be able to enter Yale, current undergraduates who will not be able to interact with those 57 students—and, by extension, the University budget, which, according to Meeske, will suffer a loss of $1.5 million in tuition, room, and board. All of these costs—the migration of students off campus, the great strain on the housing process, and the loss of dozens of incoming freshmen—are ultimately paying the price for the administration's decision to require sophomore on-campus housing.

The new housing rule is based on an admirable principle—namely, that all students should have the experience of living in a residential college for at least one year. But this year, many Berkeley sophomores were forced to live in annex space because the renovated college attracted so many students. Next year, more than 20 Branford sophomores will be annexed.

The annexing of sophomores is likely to continue as each residential college is renovated. Meeske conceded that this undermines the rationale behind the rule requiring that sophomores live on campus. And the problem is only likely to get worse. Meeske predicted that Yale will run out of annex housing next year. Unless Yale acquires a lot of new annex housing or ends the rule requiring sophomore on-campus residence, upperclassmen are likely to be forced off campus. According to Meeske, before this rule was adopted in the early '90s, no more than 100 sophomores moved off campus in any one year. But even if 50 sophomores who wanted to opt out of on-campus life could do so, that would still free up 50 spots for upperclassmen who in fact wanted to live on campus. Furthermore, if housing next year is as tight as Meeske predicts, then some sophomores may choose to leave, just as some upperclassmen have done in the past few years. Sophomores should still be guaranteed on-campus housing, but in light of its limited availability, it no longer makes sense to force those not inclined to remain on campus to stay against their will.

"All these things are tradeoffs," Meeske explained. This is indisputable. But Yale has made the wrong trade. Fortunately, it is not too late to trade back. Meeske has told the Yale College Housing Council that it must come up with a plan between now and next year's room draw. The right plan is a simple one: stop forcing sophomores to live on campus, and free the space for those who want it.

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