Berkeley renovations shake up next year's housing

JULIA PAOLITTO/YH BRAVE NEW WORLD: Rising Berkeley juniors are frustrated that more demand for rooms in the college will force many into annexes.

With the newly renovated Berkeley College unable to house the number of students who want to live there, Berkeley Dean Laurence Winnie is considering solutions that may break Yale's policy requiring sophomores to live on-campus.

"Right now, as you know, we are under the Yale College stricture that all Sophomores will be housed in the College, but I am meeting with the powers-that-be to see what can be found for the largest number of students in this College to have the residential College experience," Winnie wrote in a Wed., Feb. 24 e-mail to all Berkeley rising sophomores, juniors, and seniors.

The housing crunch is the result of an influx of members of the class of 2000 who lived off-campus this year. As seniors, these students are eager to return to the renovated college. As a result, according to members of the Berkeley Rooming Committee, 70 students may be forced into annex housing. The new Berkeley can hold 226 students--and 296 have already entered the room draw.

Even though the renovated Berkeley will have more beds than the old college, the increase is minimal, and the influx of students overwhelms it. A few Berkeley juniors are typically forced into annex housing so all the sophomores can live on campus, as required by the Undergraduate Regulations. During the 1997-98 academic year, 10 juniors lived in Van-derbilt. But with the increased demand to live in the college, this number is sure to go up. And if a large percentage of Berkeley sophomores are annexed after their year in Boyd Hall, they will not be able to experience residential college life until their senior year.

William Gold-man, BK '01, expressed the frustration that many rising juniors feel. "We lived on Old Campus freshman year, got last draw in Swing Space this year, and next year we will be annexed," he said. "It's really hurt our class cohesion. We've been living precariously in a place we knew we were only going to live in for one year. Knowing that you're soon
going to have to move out and get to know another place doesn't allow you to get comfortable."

Another Berkeley sophomore added, "We're being cheated our of the residential college experience we were promised. We haven't been integrated into Berkeley per se because we haven't been able to live in the real college setting."

Rising juniors complain in particular that the class of 2002 will get three years in the college, while they will only get one. "I think it's out of proportion," Goldman said. "There has to be a more equitable way to dispense annexing. Annexing some sophomores would allow everyone who wants to spend two years in Berkeley."

Yale College Dean Richard Brodhead, BR '68, GRD '72, acknowledged the unforeseen difficulties the renovations are causing. However, he believes some students must be inconvenienced for the greater good of Yale College. "I hope everyone believes that the renovation of the colleges is an important goal," Brodhead said. "Of course individual students will be inconvenienced. The question is, would it have been better not to have renovated Berkeley? My answer is no."

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